Falsely imprisoned, men sue FBI agent       Pair allege that he held back evidence  By GRETCHEN SCHULDT  of the Journal Sentinel staff  Last Updated: Aug. 19, 2001  Two men who spent more than eight years in prison after being wrongly convicted of bank robbery are now suing the man they say is responsible for their time behind bars - Milwaukee-based FBI Special Agent Dan Craft.       Francis Bolduc and Francis Larkin allege in their suit that Craft did not turn over to defense attorneys reports in which eyewitnesses identified other men as those who tried to rob the Southgate branch of what was then First Wisconsin Bank on June 28, 1988.         "They had to solve this case," Larkin said in a phone interview Friday from Massachusetts. "They had nobody else."        Craft also remained silent when a witness falsely testified in court that she had never viewed other photographs of potential suspects before identifying Bolduc and Larkin as the bank robbers, the suit says.        In fact, she had picked out other men from a photo pack as the robbers, the men's lawyer said.         "I just couldn't figure out how he could do this to people," Larkin said. "I guess he thought we were fair game because we had police records."         FBI Special Agent Cathy Fahey, spokeswoman for the agency's Milwaukee office, declined Friday to comment on the lawsuit, which also names the federal government as a defendant.        In the late 1980s, authorities believed two Milwaukee bank robberies were part of a nationwide string of 28 "trench coat robberies" - so named because of the robbers' attire - that spanned 14 years and netted $7.8 million.        Bolduc and Larkin became suspects in the robberies here after the FBI learned of a similar robbery in their home state of Massachusetts in which they were suspects but were not convicted.        Bolduc and Larkin were convicted in 1991 of the Milwaukee holdup.         The trench coat robberies continued, but authorities said that Bolduc and Larkin were part of a larger gang.        Larkin said he got over his ire and depression while in prison and is not particularly angry at Craft.        "I really don't know what to make of him," Larkin said.        Craft previously was investigated for ignoring a Minnesota murder suspect's requests for a lawyer during a 1999 interrogation. Dale Jenson eventually admitted to Craft that he accidentally killed 3-year-old Jessica Swanson in 1995 and hid her body.        Jessica had been missing for four years at the time. Law enforcement officials had interviewed Jenson many times but could not make an arrest, Craft testified last year in another case.         Investigators believed Craft's interview with Jenson - long the prime suspect in the matter - was the last chance to find the girl or her body, he said.        Craft testified that the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility investigated the matter, but Fahey on Friday declined to comment on the results of the investigation.        Larkin and Bolduc's lawsuit, filed this month in federal court in Boston, alleges Craft was responsible for bringing the bank robbery charges against them "although he knew full well that they were innocent and that the eyewitnesses had identified others as the guilty parties."        Before his bank robbery conviction, Larkin, now 67, had been convicted of helping steal a $30,000 payroll and a supermarket robbery.        Bolduc, now 63, had been convicted of second-degree murder stemming from a 1955 shooting and several armed robberies.        Both men were cleared of the bank robbery charges after William Kirkpatrick confessed that he held up the Wisconsin banks with a partner. U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Curran declared the Massachusetts pair innocent in June 1999. The alleged suppression of evidence came to light when Kirkpatrick's lawyer sent Bolduc a packet of evidence - including the previously undisclosed reports.         Craft later had the "gall" to apologize, said attorney Stephen B. Hrones, who is representing Bolduc and Larkin.        "There's no dispute what this guy did," Hrones said Friday. "And he's still an agent? It's mind-boggling."        Hrones wrote to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller last week, asking that he "look into" why Craft has not been fired.        Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 20, 2001.