This article below was in the New London Day today, and after reading it, all I felt was sad, and it made me think things happen to everyone and you just never know. Could this be me someday, due to no work? Are we entering a major depression? My heart goes out to this couple and their family.

If it was you, what would the first line say about who you were? I was pondering that and have no idea what it would say about me, because I do not believe I have done anything remarkable in my life, I was never a star athlete or a cheerleader. Scarey to think, what you do when life takes dips and turns you can not control.


"Charles D. Orbann was a star athlete and a squad leader in the U.S. Air Force. He taught troubled children for more than 20 years in a Pennsylvania school system.

Dianne M. Orbann was a cheerleader in college. She worked for many years as an executive secretary, and her life revolved around her husband, son and grandchildren.

As of Tuesday , Charles Orbann, 59, and Dianne Orbann, 57, of East Hampton are also sentenced bank robbers. He is serving 19 months in prison and she has a suspended sentence and three years of probation. Their lives were a classic American story, their lawyers said, until mental and medical illnesses and a gambling problem crept into their lives.

”In 25 years, this is one of the most perplexing cases I have ever had as a criminal defense lawyer,” said Ron Murphy, who represented Charles Orbann.

The husband entered the People's Bank at 139 South Main St. in Colchester on May 18, 2007, implied he had a gun and demanded money. He left with a bag of cash and fled in a car driven by his wife. Witnesses were able to describe the car, and police spotted them a short time later in East Hampton. The Orbanns had two loaded guns in their car when they were arrested.

At the sentencings in New London, the Orbanns' adult son and other relatives listened as the couple's attorneys chronicled how their lives had deteriorated to this point.

Murphy said that in the 1990s, things started to change for Charles Orbann. Mental illness crept into his life, and he started missing days at work. He eventually left teaching and was diagnosed with depression and bipolar disorder. The couple moved to Illinois, then to Connecticut to be close to their son and grandchildren.

”One of the unfortunate things about them coming to Connecticut is they were kind of close to Mohegan Sun,” Murphy said. He did not provide specifics on Orbann's gambling problem. “There were ce rtain losses,” he said.

Dianne Orbann left her job to take care of her husband and became “the keeper of the secret” of his mental illness, according to her attorney, Hope C. Seeley. Doctors said Orbann was unable to function in society without his wife. But eventually, Seeley said, his paranoia infected his wife. He demanded that she carry a loaded gun, and she did. She suffered from depression and panic attacks. Both suffered from physical ailments, and Charles Orbann worried all the time.

The wife could no longer control her husband, Seeley said, and on the day of the bank robbery, she didn't think her husband was serious.

”I think what happened that day is she was immobilized into submission,” Seeley said.

Charles Orbann's short-lived crime spree actually began 10 days earlier. On May 8, 2007, he smashed a car window and stole two pocketbooks while watching his grandson's soccer game in East Hampton, according to his attorney. He tried, unsuccessfully, to use credit cards from the pocketbooks at the casino. On the way out, he smashed another car window.

Husband and wife apologized for their crime, and their attorneys pleaded for leniency. But prosecutor John P. Gravalec-Pannone asked the judge to impose full sentences.

”We can empathize on a human level, but we have to send a message that if you're going to rob a bank and display a gun, you're going to jail,” Pannone said.

Judge Susan B. Handy remarked how terrifying it must have been for the bank teller that day. She said she recognized Charles Orbann's illness drove him to rob the bank, “but we can't have people robbing banks.”

The judge also told Dianne Orbann it was time for her to stand up for herself.