Former Hopkins BBall Star Takes Plea Deal

SIREN, Wis. (AP) - A 19-year-old college basketball prospect from Minnesota has reached a plea deal with prosecutors for his alleged involvement in a bank robbery last summer.

Defense attorney Eric Nelson says Anthony DiLoreto, of Minnetonka, pleaded no contest to a felony charge of robbery as a party to a crime.

The Burnett County judge handed down a deferred judgment of conviction. The charge could be dismissed next year if DiLoreto does not have similar offenses.

DiLoreto also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession of burglary tools, Nelson said Friday. Sentencing on that charge is Oct. 22. It carries a maximum penalty of 3 1/2 years in prison.

DiLoreto's friend Melvin Fletcher, 17, allegedly came up with a plan to rob a Danbury bank in August 2008. DiLoreto drove them there in his mother's car. Fletcher, armed with DiLoreto's sawed-off shotgun, left the bank with $1,000, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say DiLoreto heard sirens, became frightened and drove home. Officers found Fletcher walking west of Danbury and arrested him, police said. Police arrested DiLoreto at his home.

Fletcher, of Hopkins, Minn., pleaded guilty in January to robbery with threat of force. A charge of possessing a short-barreled shotgun was dismissed. He was sentenced to five years of extended supervision, 10 years of probation and a stayed sentence of three years in prison.

DiLoreto originally faced charges of robbery of a financial institution and possession of a short-barreled shotgun, both of which he pleaded not guilty to in October. Nelson said those charges were dismissed in the plea agreement.

DiLoreto, a 7-foot-tall former center for Hopkins High School, gave up a basketball scholarship to California Polytechnic State University after he was charged. Nelson said college basketball prospects remain for DiLoreto.

DiLoreto also has to participate in a "restorative justice program" in which he has to talk with the robbery victims, Nelson said.

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