Atty: Minn. cop turned robber wanted to be killed

Timothy Edward Carson
This photo provided by the Dakota County Sheriff's Department on Thursday Jan. 7, 2010 shows Timothy Edward Carson. Carson a Minneapolis police SWAT team member has been charged with bank robbery.
AP Photo/Dakota County Sheriff's Department

An attorney for a Minneapolis SWAT officer who robbed a bank says the officer's life was falling apart and he was hoping to die in a confrontation with police to secure an insurance payout for his sick daughter and wife.

Federal defender Andrea George says in a court document filed Friday that Timothy Carson, 29, was broke, worried about his sick daughter and haunted by nightmares about his time fighting in Iraq.

George is seeking leniency for Carson at his sentencing. She says Carson would benefit from psychological treatment and has asked U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz in St. Paul to impose the minimum seven-year prison term.

The decorated soldier pleaded guilty in March to robbing a suburban Minneapolis bank on Jan. 6. He was arrested that afternoon.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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