People attend a rally at the old Rockland County Courthouse in New City to protest the commutation of the prison sentence of Brink’s robbery convict Judith Clark Jan. 4, 2017. Peter Carr/The Journal News
NEW CITY, N.Y. — In the wake of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to commute the life sentence of Judith Clark for her role in the murders of two New York police officers and a Brinks guard in 1981, hundreds gathered Wednesday to oppose Clark’s parole.
The move allows Clark, 67, to seek parole in 2017. Cuomo’s decision Friday reopened old wounds for many in Rockland County, N.Y., where the officers were killed. Clark drove one of the getaway cars in the $1.6 million robbery that led to Brinks guard Peter Paige being killed at the Nanuet Mall and Nyack, N.Y., 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.
Mary Crowley, whose brother, O’Grady, was killed, said she has not forgiven Clark.
“I feel it’s an injustice that she’s had her sentence commuted. … I just don’t reel that she is repentant. I don’t feel that she is genuine,” said Crowley at the rally on the steps of the Rockland Courthouse.
Crowley was among numerous family members of the three men killed in the Brinks robbery to attend the rally organized by Rockland County Executive Ed Day and the Rockland County Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
The commutation reduces Clark’s sentence to 35 years to life, and makes her eligible for parole this year. Under her previous sentence, she would not have been eligible for parole until she was 106.
Clark, a once self-proclaimed revolutionary, is now serving her sentence in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County.
Clark’s lawyer, Steven Zeidman, said in a statement released about Wednesday’s rally that Clark was a “remarkably changed person” and “grateful for the opportunity to demonstrate that to the Parole Board.”
“Judy Clark accepts responsibility and lives with remorse, regret and grief for the three lives lost 35 years ago,” said Zeidman. “She has tried to help repair the damage done that devastating day by acknowledging her role and publicly expressing her shame, and by working in prison on behalf of sick inmates and those needing help in turning their lives around.”
John Hanchar, a Clarkstown police officer and a nephew of O’Grady, said on the steps of the courthouse to more than 200 people at the rally that “Judith Clark came to Rockland knowing people would die.”
Hanchar, 47, said Cuomo did not reach out to family members of those killed in the robbery before he commuted Clark’s sentence, and he was insulted by Cuomo’s positive characterizations of Clark.
“When the governor of your own state calls the woman who murdered your family member impressive, it’s like pulling a scab off a wound that never really healed,” he said.
Earlier this week, Cuomo said Clark impressed him as community-minded when they met before he commuted her sentence.
Diane O’Grady, the widow of Edward O’Grady, said in an open letter to Cuomo that “I find even the suggestion of her release an insult and slap in the face to the families, all law enforcement and veterans and military alike.”
Hanchar was one of more than a dozen elected officials and law enforcement officers who stood on the courthouse steps to oppose Clark’s commutation and her potential parole. And placed at the foot of the steps was a portion of the windshield of the Brinks truck — pierced and riddled with holes.
Day said he recalled the day “terrorists with an ideology that makes sense only to them, invaded our county.”
“Let’s set the record straight: Judith Clark is a cold-blooded killer. Judith Clark is a domestic terrorist,” Day said, drawing applause from the crowd.
Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe called Clark’s commutation a “total disgrace,” and said she was “instrumental in the planning” and carrying out of the robbery. He also equated her “terroristic activities” to the Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIL or ISIS.
Zugibe said Clark’s commutation cannot be appealed or reversed. Clark is eligible for parole this year, and can reapply every two years afterward if she is denied.
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