POLITICS ON THE HUDSON

Brinks murders: Judith Clark may be released

Steve Lieberman and Joseph Spector
slieberm@lohud.com
Police lead Kathy Boudin, David Gilbert and Judith Clark into the Nyack Police Station after they were charged in the killing of two Nyack officers and a Brinks guard on Oct. 20, 1981.

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday commuted Judith Clark's life sentence, allowing the 67-year-old once self-proclaimed revolutionary to seek early release before a parole board in 2017 for her role in the murders of two Nyack police officers and a Brinks guard on Oct. 20, 1981.

Clark, who has served more than 35 years of a 75 years to life sentence, was one of seven people to receive commuted sentences from Cuomo, along with five outright pardons.

The governor also gave "conditional pardons" to 101 New Yorkers he said had been convicted when they were minors and who have lived crime-free for at least 10 years. That move was part of an effort Cuomo announced last year to issue youth pardons to individuals convicted of a misdemeanor or non-violent felony at age 16 or 17 and have since stayed out of trouble.

Letting Clark seek parole reopened old wounds for many in Rockland, where the officers were killed. She drove one of the getaway cars in the $1.6 million robbery that led to guard Peter Paige being killed at the Nanuet Mall and Nyack Sgt. Edward O'Grady and Officer Waverly "Chipper" Brown being shot dead less than an hour later at a roadblock to the New York State Thruway in Nyack.

Rockland District Attorney Office Chief of Detectives Peter Modaferri arrived at Mountainview Avenue leading onto the Thruway moments after the shooting, when chaos reigned and where officers were arresting several of the participants.

"I will never forget the horror,” Modaferri said. “I hope that the parole board will take that horror into consideration — the horror she caused for the families — when they consider her case.”

Modaferri said there's an irony to Clark seeking early release, saying, she "murdered because she hated the system and is now benefiting from the system. The people who defended the system, their lives have ended and their families are devastated."

Clark has led an effort for clemency, including more than 1,000 letters from people who said she had deserved to be released.

Jennifer Mancuso of Nyack, an advocate for freeing Clark, said, "I know Judy would want to express how grateful she is to the governor and that while it is a joyous occasion for her she is acutely aware that it is a painful and difficult one for those who lost loved ones that day, and that she will continue to feel and express remorse and a sense of obligation to the families who were devastated."

Mancuso organized an event on restorative justice at the Nyack Center.

"Of course, there is the fact that she's among the oldest and longest serving women in NYS prison," Mancuso said. "And that given her extraordinary record of achievement and redemption in prison, the only reason for her continued incarceration is to exact relentless, interminable punishment.  Hopefully we can all look instead to healing and mercy."

In commuting Clark's sentence, Cuomo compared her role to Kathy Boudin, who served more than 20 years before being paroled in 2003. She was a passenger in the U-Haul van driven by David Gilbert, the father of their son.

Cuomo's news release announcing his actions said Clark "received one of the longest sentences of her six co-defendants, the majority of whom are either deceased or no longer in custody."

Clark, who has been housed in at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, "has made exceptional strides in self-development," the news release said, noting she had earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from Mercy College and has an extensive prison programming record including teaching pre-natal parenting courses in the Nursery Program, founding an HIV/AIDS education program, training service dogs in the Puppies Behind Bars program, and serving as a college tutor. She has "a perfect disciplinary record and lives in honor housing," the statement continued.

It included several quotes from people supporting Cuomo's actions, including CUNY professor Steven Zeldman, who said Cuomo had shown "a remarkable level of empathy" with the decision, and Ann Jacobs, director of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice's Prisoner Reentry Institute, who called it "both principled and inspiring."

"It evidences the best of American values — of giving second chances, of recognizing that the measure of a person is more than the worst they have done, but what they have done to learn from their mistakes and to give back," she continued.

Families members and opponents have argued Clark should continue doing her good work in prison.

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said he’s ready to fight Clark's parole in 2017 just as he and others opposed clemency in the past. He noted that although Cuomo was lobbied heavily to take steps to release Clark, the governor's decision was to push the case off to the parole board.

Zugibe said Clark helped plan the robbery and was at the scene on Mountainview Avenue in Nyack when the two officers were slain. He said her supporters have falsely claimed she played a non-violent role and simply drove the getaway car.

“Unlike how they portray her, she was actively involved in the planning and execution of the crime,” Zugibe said. “He actions contributed to the murder of three people.”

Clark was captured with fellow 1960s radical David Gilbert and gunman Samuel Brown after she crashed the getaway car on Broadway in Nyack. She was reaching for a loaded automatic weapon when South Grand View Police Chief Alan Colsey approached the car, Zugibe said.

Rockland Undersheriff Robert Van Cura, a South Nyack police officer at the time the Brinks robbery, said Cuomo’s decision is “another unfortunate example of people not really taking into account the families and communities impacted."

Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a former Detective Commander in the New York Police Department, also criticized Cuomo's actions, calling it "a vicious slap in the face to every member of law enforcement, the victim’s families and every person who was touched by the brutal and cowardly 1981 Brinks robbery in Rockland County that she chose to take part in."

"Judith Clark is a domestic terrorist," he said. "Her only place in a civilized society is behind bars.”

The governor did not release the names of the people issued conditional pardons for their crimes as teens. The decision means they will have their convictions absolved if they don't get convicted again.

The five outright pardons, which absolve people of their convictions, included DeJuan Callender, 42, who was convicted of disorderly conduct and unlicensed operation of a vehicle in 2002. He has had no further criminal problems since then, but he has been fighting removal from the country since 2005, Cuomo's office said. He's a doorman in White Plains and has a 6-year-old son and a wife, both of whom are U.S. citizens.

With the pardon, Cuomo's office said, Callender can seek to reopen his removal order in immigration court.

Another pardon was issued to Kelly Jarrett, 64, who was convicted of murder and robbery in 1977 in Utica. In 2005, Jarrett was released after a 28.5-year sentence in the high-profile case and for the last 13 years has lived and worked at a convent in Peekskill.

New York has an application process to apply for the conditional pardons or other leniency at ny.gov/services/apply-clemency.