In each case, McKenna, who lives in Averill Park, passed notes to tellers or clerks claiming that he had a gun and demanding cash, according to court records and law enforcement officials familiar with the robberies.

McKenna, a former U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate General (JAG) attorney, strode into federal court in Albany Wednesday afternoon handcuffed, shackled and suited in an Albany County jail jumpsuit as his girlfriend, who is about 7 months pregnant, sat in the small courtroom choking back tears.

McKenna had once worked for O'Connell & Aronowitz in Albany, the firm of prominent criminal defense attorney Stephen R. Coffey. He was represented in federal court by a federal public defender, Gene V. Primomo.

That was clear in federal court Wednesday as U.S. Magistrate Randolph F. Treece ordered McKenna held in the custody of U.S. Marshals with a recommendation he undergo psychiatric counseling and receive treatment for heroin addiction at Albany County jail. Treece made the recommendation after meeting privately in his chambers for about 30 minutes with Primomo and Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlos Moreno.

As recently as last summer, McKenna had worked for Albany Management, a property management company operated by the Colonie-based Laberge Group, one of the region's largest engineering and development firms. In that capacity, McKenna had been a close confidante of Ronald H. Laberge, who founded the firm and was the target of a federal investigation into a bribery scandal involving state government contracts.

Laberge was sentenced in September to five years' probation after pleading guilty to making a $2,500 bribery payment to a state leasing agent who manipulated a rental contract in Troy that would have netted Laberge several hundred thousand dollars profit.

While McKenna was at O'Connell & Aronowitz, he had negotiated with federal prosecutors as the FBI sought to enlist Laberge as an informant to penetrate state government and political corruption. Coffey had served as Laberge's attorney of record in the case, but officials close to the investigation said McKenna was also heavily involved in the defense early on.

On Wednesday, Saratoga County sheriff's investigators lodged an arrest warrant at Albany County jail for McKenna. They have accused him of stealing $727 from a Price Chopper in Malta last Saturday night. Surveillance cameras captured the heist, and a clerk who handed McKenna the cash was able to identify McKenna from a photo spread, officials close to the case said.

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