Notes seized from the jail cell of a former police officer accused of masterminding a series of armored car heists in Sonoma and Marin counties that netted him $400,000 will not be handed over to prosecutors, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Robert "Steve" Starling, 35 of Santa Rosa, can keep private about two-dozen pages of handwritten documents confiscated by Sonoma County corrections officers after a Judge Arthur Wick said they were protected by attorney-client privilege.
Prosecutors said it was unknown if the letters would have been meaningful. Deputy District Attorney Marianna Green said she subpoenaed them after they were taken in a routine search for contraband at the jail.
"All I know is I don't get copies to review," Green said after the ruling.
Defense attorney Jeff Mitchell said the documents were not significant to the case and called their seizure unusual.
"One could draw an inference of heightened scrutiny because he is a former police officer," Mitchell said outside the courtroom.
Starling, a Santa Rosa and Sonoma State University police officer for about six years, faces eight felony charges and one misdemeanor for armored car holdups in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Novato from September 2007 through May. If convicted, he could be sentenced to about 35 years in prison, Green said.
His alleged accomplice, Andrew Cooper Esslinger, 26, is charged with five felonies, including the Sebastopol and Novato heists. He faces 10 years if convicted.
Starling and Esslinger have both entered not guilty pleas. Their bail was previously set at $1 million. A preliminary hearing for both men is scheduled Dec. 10.
Starling appeared in court Tuesday in a blue jail uniform. He is being held in protective custody at the jail because he is a former police officer.
Prosecutors said Starling used his knowledge as a patrolman and a former armored-car company employee to pull off the lucrative heists.
Starling worked as a probationary Santa Rosa police officer from December 2000 to April 2001. He then was hired as a Sonoma State University officer. In May 2003, he returned to Santa Rosa as a patrol officer but quit in July 2006. Starling returned to SSU and sought his old job back, but he wasn't rehired.
In addition to being a former police officer, Starling briefly worked as a Brinks armored carrier employee, police said.
The techniques used in the robberies clued police to the possibility that the perpetrator could have law enforcement training.
Those included ruses and diversionary tactics that were apparently meant to keep police occupied while the robbers hit. The tactics hinted that the robbers had some knowledge of how police are trained to respond.
Both are charged with making an anonymous phone threat to Rancho Cotate High School on March 18 saying there was a person with a gun on campus. The report triggered a lockdown of the school, a post-Columbine saturation response by police and concern among hundreds of parents worried for their children's safety.
There was no robbery on that day and police said the believe any attempt was aborted because of the massive police response in Rohnert Park.
The robbers also apparently knew that armored car heists were far more lucrative than standard stick-ups inside a bank. Three robberies were from Brinks trucks and one from Loomis Armored Transport.
Starling used money from the robberies to finance a carefree lifestyle and start at least two indoor marijuana gardens, according to Santa Rosa police.
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