LONG SOLO: Former music teacher gets 7-year sentence for robbery

AURORA | A former music teacher who robbed an Aurora bank last summer will spend the next seven years in federal prison, a judge ruled last week.
Christian Paetsch will be free on bond until his 86-month sentence starts in May, according to court records.
Paetsch pleaded guilty earlier this year to bank robbery and using a gun during a crime. The plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors that allows Paetsch to continue his court fight against the bizarre police traffic stop that led to his arrest in the minutes after the robbery.
Paetsch’s robbery of an Aurora Wells Fargo on June 2, 2012, gained national attention after Aurora police stopped at least 25 vehicles at an intersection and held them at gunpoint for almost an hour during their search for the robber. Eventually, a tracking device hidden in the stacks of cash lead investigators to Paetsch. In his car, cops found the beekeeper mask, gun and money from the bank.
The traffic stop sparked a flurry of criticism of Aurora police and Paetsch’s lawyer argued it was unconstitutional and tried to have the evidence seized from the car thrown out. But last fall a judge sided with police and prosecutors and said the stop was legal.
With last week’s sentencing, it appears Patesch’s only hope of serving less than seven years is reversing the judge’s ruling on appeal.
The case was also peculiar because Paetsch, an accomplished violinist and former music teacher, hardly fits the mold of a typical bank robber. Before his arrest in June, he had no criminal record.
Paetsch said in court this year that he robbed the bank in a “moment of despair.” He said he was going through trouble in his family life and bank robbery was his bizarre response to those problems.
Prosecutors said the bank had declined to restructure a loan for Paetsch a day before he robbed it.