Ex-bank manager faces more charges

DOWNEY – A Downey woman sentenced last week for her role in a 2012 East Los Angeles bank robbery is now facing charges of insurance fraud. Aurora Barrera, 33, was charged with two counts of insurance fraud Monday. She was scheduled to be arraigned at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Barrera claimed she had post-traumatic stress disorder following a September 2012 robbery at a Bank of America branch where she worked.

She filed a workers’ compensation claim shortly thereafter and collected about $35,000 in disability benefits, prosecutors said.

In March, a federal jury found Barrera and her ex-boyfriend, Reyes Vega, guilty of conspiracy and bank robbery. Investigators determined Barrera, working with Vega, strapped a fake bomb to herself to make it appear she was a hostage while the bank was being robbed.

Barrera was sentenced last week to nine years in federal prison.

If convicted of the new charges, she faces up to five years in prison.

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Published: Aug. 14, 2014 - Volume 13 - Issue 18