This day in history: A convicted bank robber struck again after a state parole board put his rehabilitation over ‘the protection of the public’

From 1976: Dennis Leo Lehman, convicted of robbing the Greenacres branch of the Old National Bank in 1970, was apparently up to his old tricks.

He was now wanted for robbing a bank in Kennett, Missouri, and making a getaway in a rented Piper Cherokee plane.

After Lehman was convicted of the Greenacres armed robbery, he had been sentenced to “not more than 30 years” in the State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. Yet after only three years, he was released by the State Parole Board after convincing them he had reformed.

Spokane County Prosecutor Don Brockett was not pleased, saying that “the emphasis was placed on the rehabilitation of the person rather than the protection of the public.”

Both Lehman and the plane were still missing.

From 1926: The staff of the Spokane County auditor’s office was in a state of panic over the fact that $2,000 in auto license fees was missing.

Was the money stolen? Embezzled? Or simply misplaced?

Auditors from the state had arrived in Spokane and were investigating “day and night.”

“Still smoldering in the minds of many employees in the auditor’s office is the determination to force a clean bill of health in their own behalf,” the Chronicle reported. “Mention was made today of another meeting of employees at which drastic assertions may be made to recover the money by demanding that someone be held in strict accountability for the missing funds.”