Suspected River Rat pleads not guilty

The “River Rat” suspect pleaded not guilty today in Clark County Superior Court in connection to five alleged robberies in Vancouver.

Alexey Perez-Hernandez, 32, of the Bonney Lake-area, will go to trial March 1.

He remains in the Clark County Jail on $1 million bail.

Perez-Hernandez, nicknamed the “River Rat” by the FBI for his alleged penchant for striking on both sides of the Columbia River, is allegedly responsible for 18 robberies in Washington and Oregon last summer and fall.

In October, Clark County prosecutors filed first-degree robbery charges relating to three alleged holdups of cash advance stores and two bank robberies in Vancouver.

They include Aug. 10 and Aug. 25 robberies at Advance America Cash Advance, 13503 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd., and a Sept. 8 holdup at The Cash Store, 1108 N.E. 78th St.

The alleged bank robberies occurred Aug. 11 at Key Bank, 13215 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd., and Sept. 24 at Chase Bank, 13620 N.E. 84th St.

The Vancouver robberies netted a total of about $18,900, court papers show. The total amount believed stolen in all 18 robberies from late July to October was $100,000.

Perez- Hernandez was apprehended in October in Pierce County after a lone fingerprint was recovered from a Kent check-cashing store following a Sept. 14 robbery.

He was transported to face charges in Clark County in December.

Meanwhile, Perez-Hernandez’s alleged getaway driver, Travis Lee Oles, 35, of Portland, is charged as an accomplice in the robberies. He’s scheduled to go to trial Feb. 22.