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This is an article from August 2, 2002. Police now say this guy came looking for them to help them out?:

Not-guilty Plea in Bank Heist

By Angie Welling

Deseret News staff writer

One of the two men accused of helping Richard Albert Ricci rob a Sandy bank last year appeared in federal court Thursday. John Russell Remington, 44, pleaded not guilty to charges of armed bank robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and restricted persons in possession of a firearm. Ricci is among a list of potential suspects in the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. A former handyman for the Smarts, Ricci, 48, is also charged in state court with stealing items from their Federal Heights house. Douglas Rex Young, 51, is also charged with the bank robbery. U.S. Magistrate Ronald Boyce Thursday scheduled a three-day trial to begin Sept. 23 before David Winder, U.S. district judge for Utah. Federal prosecutors hope to try all three men at the same time. "We charged them together. We hope to try them together," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Vincent said. That may, however, be held up by custody issues and coordinating attorneys' schedules.

Remington will remain in federal custody pending trial. Ricci is in state custody on the theft charges and a parole violation, and Young is in the custody of a federal parole board. Arraignments for Ricci and Young have not been scheduled. If convicted, Remington and Young face a maximum 42 years in prison. Ricci was charged with a federal "three strikes" sentencing enhancement for a series of violent crimes committed over a nearly 30-year period. If convicted, the penalty carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Law enforcers allege Ricci masterminded the Nov. 2, 2001, holdup of Far West Bank, 8520 S. 1300 East. According to a Sandy police report, a man in a ski mask entered the bank holding a black handgun just before 5 p.m. The man ordered two tellers to lie down on the floor and threatened to take a third hostage if the tellers didn't cooperate. The man took $1,713 from the tills and ran out of the bank. The man was seen getting into the passenger side of a white Honda.

I've always thought there was something fishy about Remington, including the fact that they plastered pictures of Ricci, Young, and Romero all over the media but I have never seen a picture of Remington. There was the comment his lawyer made about it being ridiculous they would consider his client a potential suspect in the Elizabeth Smart case since he was in jail on the night she was kidnapped. Then NE said that Young and Remington's voices were in the voice lineup given to MK.

I remember reading that police had interviewed Young, and they also wanted to interview a man named John Russell Remington who was another ex-con who had worked with Ricci in the Federal Heights neighborhood at one time. I read that Ricci gave police Young and Remington's names as other ex-con's he had worked with in the Federal Heights neighborhood and Remington returned the favor by fingering Ricci as the gunman in his bank robbery. Now police are telling us Remington came forward on his own as a good Christian to do whatever he could to help find Elizabeth and should be rewarded for it. Even though he gave police no information that has helped them one iota in the case.

I don't know what it is, but I think there may be something rotten with Remington, his relationship with the police, and the story they've told us, and Remington could well be the key to solving Elizabeth's disappearance.