ELYRIA — Robert Starnes Jr. hasn’t been charged in connec­tion with any of the bank rob­beries for which he’s a suspect, but he has been held in the Lorain County Jail since he was arrested on a parole violation Thursday.

The problem is that Starnes, 39, may not be on parole.

In March, Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christo­pher Rothgery issued a ruling ordering the state to stop mon­itoring Starnes. “The Ohio Adult Parole Authority is hereby ordered to release the defendant from any supervision or control,” Rothgery wrote in his March ruling.

But Rothgery didn’t have the power to issue such an order, said Julie Walburn, spokes­woman for the Ohio Depart­ment of Rehabilitation and Correction, the state depart­ment under which the parole authority falls.

“Judges can’t terminate parole,” Walburn said. “Judges don’t have the authority.”

She said a prison system lawyer sent Rothgery a letter to that effect after the judge handed down his order.

And the parole authority continued to treat Starnes as if he were a parolee.

“We can’t implement an invalid order,” Walburn said.

Rothgery said his order speaks for itself.

“I made my decision. I issued my order,” he said Monday. “Whether the parole authority has chosen to follow it, I don’t know.”

FBI Special Agent Scott Wilson said Monday that Starnes remains a suspect in a string of Lorain County bank robberies, but the investigation is ongoing. Several tips linked Starnes to the robberies, including the robbery of the Chase bank branch in Sheffield Lake last Wednesday, according to authorities.

Starnes was arrested at the Erie Shores Landing apartment complex on the parole violation on Thursday, but Walburn declined to say exactly what the violation is.

Starnes has been considered a violator-at-large since May 26 because he had failed to report to his parole officer, Walburn said.

No one had formally challenged Starnes’ continued confinement as of Monday, but two of Starnes’ former lawyers, Jack Bradley and John Prusak, said their respective offices had been contacted by Starnes’ family about possibly representing him.

Both Bradley and Prusak said they believe Rothgery’s order is valid.

“That order is clear. He’s supposed to be off parole,” said Prusak, who represented Starnes in an April arrest in Lorain on heroin possession, cocaine possession and other charges that were later dropped.

Rothgery didn’t just issue the order releasing Starnes from parole out of the blue, Bradley said.

Starnes, who has a lengthy criminal record dating back two decades, spent years in prison on aggravated burglary and breaking and entering charges stemming from two 1993 cases.

Starnes was eventually released and was on parole when he picked up two charges — a 2004 escape charge for failing to report to parole officials and a 2003 charge of attempted grand theft for trying to steal a construction trailer.

As part of a 2005 plea deal, Starnes agreed to plead guilty to the new charges in exchange for three years of probation. Part of that plea agreement, according to court documents, was that Starnes be resentenced on the two 1993 cases and his parole turned into probation, which he would serve concurrently with the probation in his two new cases.

During the July 2005 sentencing hearing in which Starnes was given probation on the four cases, Assistant County Prosecutor Mike Kinlin didn’t object to the plea agreement, but he did note that he wasn’t sure it was legal to convert parole into probation.

Also at the hearing was parole officer Jeff Taraschke, who called Starnes the worst parolee he’d seen in his career and urged Rothgery to send Starnes back to prison. Taraschke also questioned whether Rothgery could change the parole from the 1993 cases into probation.

Rothgery ultimately decided to stick with the plea deal, but he warned that if Starnes messed up, he would be going back to prison.

“There was an agreement made in this case, and I intend to follow through with it, though not everybody intended to do that,” Rothgery said, according to a transcript of the 2005 hearing. “I’ll give you your shot, sir, and it’s a risk you are taking.”

Starnes didn’t last a year on probation, and in February 2006, Rothgery ordered him to prison for four years.

When Starnes got out of prison, Bradley said his office asked Rothgery for the order stating that Starnes was no longer on parole because parole officers kept telling his client he was still on parole. He said Rothgery’s decision is legal under a section of the Ohio Revised Code, which allows judges to sentence parolees who commit new crimes to either parole or prison on their older crimes when they hand down sentences in the new cases.

Meanwhile, Starnes is facing unrelated charges, including an allegation he had drugs on him when he was booked into jail after his April arrest. Lorain police Lt. Edward Super said that charge was reinstated last week.

Starnes also is charged with theft and obstructing official business in an Avon case from earlier this month, according to Avon Lake Municipal Court records. He had posted bond in that case.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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