A former Winston-Salem police officer, who pleaded guilty to
two felonies earlier this year, was charged Saturday with armed robbery and
other crimes, court records show.
Robert Lee Baker Jr., 39, who is unemployed and lives on
Thornaby Circle, also was charged with first-degree burglary, second-degree
kidnapping, impersonating an officer, carrying a concealed gun and
communicating a threat, arrest warrants say.
Baker is accused of stealing $70 and a coin bank from
Severiano Jimenez Maya. Baker is also accused of threatening Maya with a .40
caliber handgun, according to an arrest warrant.
Officers went to 700 Cole Ridge Court shortly before 9 p.m.
Friday after a reported armed robbery, Winston-Salem police said.
Maya told police that a man entered his apartment and
identified himself as a police officer. The man displayed a gun in his
waistband and stole money. Maya said the robber forced him to go into a
bathroom and threatened to harm him if he came out.
When Maya heard the front door shut, he looked outside and
saw a blue Ford Explorer driving off, police said. Officers stopped Baker, who
was driving a blue Ford Expedition in the area.
Baker worked for six years and four months as a police
officer, according to city personnel records. He was fired in August 2012 for
unbecoming conduct and unsatisfactory performance, a city official has said.
His annual salary was $37,883 at that time.
Baker did off-duty security work for the Housing Authority
of Winston-Salem and Development Management Inc., which oversees Northside
Shopping Center.
In February, Baker pleaded guilty to two felony counts of
obtaining property by false pretense, court records show. He was accused
falsifying hours that he worked off-duty as a security guard so he could be
paid nearly $2,000.
As part of the plea arrangement, Baker was placed in a deferred
prosecution program in which he was on supervised probation for 12 months, and
if he complied with the conditions of the deferred prosecution program, the
charges would be voluntarily dismissed at a hearing in January 2014, court
records show.
He was ordered to pay $1,865 in restitution and complete 50
hours of community service.
Baker was being held Tuesday in the Forsyth County Jail with
his bond set at $250,000. He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 19.
