Accused Long Island bank robber in 1993 heist asks judge to dismiss case

LAKE SUCCESS (WABC) -- An accused bank robber on Long Island is asking a judge to dismiss the oldest outstanding such case in the state of New York.

Police say Claude Bird was part of a crew that robbed a Lake Success bank in 1993. He was 20 at the time.

The thieves got almost a quarter million dollars, a record haul for a bank robbery in Nassau County.

Bird was arrested four years ago while trying to get a driver's license. He was 37.

The robbery took place at an EAB Bank that is no longer there, but at the time, detectives called it an inside job. Two heavily armed masked men pulled off the heist. Cops arrested the getaway driver and a teller at the bank, but they had a harder had never caught up with two gunman.

Investigators had zeroed in on Bird, who fled to Jamaica and then escaped extradition before returning to the United States in 1994.

Bird tried to get the new license in 2010, but it raised a red flag because Bird had obtained a previous license by assuming the identity of a dead man.

Now, Bird has agreed to have a judge decide the case.

The problem is that prosecutors can't find key evidence, including bank video recordings and hair found in the bank vault.