Graswald grateful to be out, lawyer says

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. » The lawyer for the Poughkeepsie woman who pleaded guilty in the drowning death of her fiance during a Hudson River kayak outing says she is grateful to be out of prison.

Angelika Graswald was released Thursday from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County.

Graswald, 37, and her fiance, 46-year-old Vincent Viafiore, were on the Hudson in April 2015 when he drowned. Prosecutors said Graswald admitted sabotaging his kayak by pulling the drain plug and suggested she wanted his $250,000 in life insurance money.

Graswald was questioned for 11 hours and told police she was ambivalent about Viafore’s drowning because they had been in a bad relationship.

The missing plug from Viafore’s kayak was recovered from the center console of the Graswald’s car, and she was charged with murder on April 30, 2015. Police and prosecutors alleged Graswald plotted to kill Viafore to collect some of the $250,000 from his life insurance policies.

Viafore’s body was recovered from the river on May 23, 2015, near West Point.

Graswald initially was charged with murder but that later was reduced to criminally negligent homicide, to which she pleaded guilty this past July.

She was sentenced in November to 16 to 48 months in prison. She had been behind bars since her April 2015 arrest and was released this week because of time already served.

Graswald did not speak to reporters waiting outside the prison on Thursday. Her attorney, Richard Portale, said she would work on reconstructing her life.

Prosecutors have said Graswald could face deportation to her native Latvia after her 16-month parole.