A well-known San Francisco chef was arrested and charged after three bank robberies in the city last week, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Officers responding to a bank alarm around noon on Sept. 10 learned that a man had passed a note demanding money to an employee, who complied "in fear for their life," the police department said. The man then fled with a bag of money. Investigators identified the suspect with help from the community and arrested him later the same day. The suspect was identified as 62-year-old Valentino Luchin of San Francisco.
San Francisco police said there were two other bank robberies in the central district that day involving a suspect with a similar description and methods. Luchin was charged with robbery and attempted robbery for those incidents and is being held on $200,000 bail, according to the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 24.
Deputy Public Defender Kwixuan H. Maloof issued a statement saying Luchin is a "talented chef and kind person" who had recently found himself in a "desperate" financial situation. Maloof said the restaurant industry has been difficult in recent years and that Luchin was offered a position that was later withdrawn, which put him into a "state of depression." "The charges against him are totally overblown, and the government is trying to stretch the law to fit facts that simply are not there," Maloof said, adding that he intends to challenge the charges and "expose prosecutorial overreach."
Local reporting and public records identify Luchin as a culinary figure who worked at Italian restaurants including Rose Pistola and Ottavio. He previously was charged in a 2018 bank robbery in Contra Costa County. At the time, during an interview at a detention facility, Luchin said, "I went inside and said 'Good morning. Nobody move. This is a robbery.'" He told reporters he had been struggling financially after his restaurant Ottavio in Walnut closed in 2016 and that the robbery was not something he planned to do for a living.
According to a Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office spokesperson, Ted Asregadoo, Luchin pleaded no contest in 2018 to one count of second-degree robbery and was sentenced to one year in county jail and three years of probation.
San Francisco police have not released additional details about the evidence linking Luchin to the three Sept. 10 robberies. The department said the investigations benefited from tips from the community that helped identify the suspect. Court filings and further police statements are expected to be available as the case proceeds to the preliminary hearing later this month.
The arrests and charges come amid ongoing challenges in the restaurant industry that attorneys and former restaurateurs have said have led some hospitality workers and owners into financial distress. Luchin's attorney framed his client's alleged actions in that context, while prosecutors have moved forward with robbery and attempted robbery charges stemming from the reported holdups.
The case will be handled in San Francisco criminal court, where pretrial proceedings will consider the evidence and whether the charges will proceed to trial. The preliminary hearing scheduled for Sept. 24 will determine whether sufficient probable cause exists for the charges to be bound over for trial.