Mega-perv parole bid jars victims

ALBANY — An upstate pedophile who told cops he molested hundreds of kids is coming up again for parole, leaving his victims outraged and fearful at the thought of him getting out.

Louis VanWie (photo inset), 75, who is housed at Gowanda Correctional Facility in Erie County, will appear before a state Parole Board panel the week of Aug. 7. He has previously been denied parole five times.

But at least two of his victims, Kayla Wittmann and upstate investor Gary Greenberg, want to make sure the sixth time is no charm for VanWie, who has served 20 years of a maximum 30-year sentence.

Wittmann, one of the young girls VanWie admitted in court to abusing, was just 6 when the incidents took place. VanWie was a friend of Wittmann’s father.

“I get the letter in the mail every other year telling me he’s up for parole,” Wittmann, 26, said. “It freaks me out every time.”

His parole hearing typically falls around her Aug. 9 birthday and leaves her fearful he’ll get out seeking retaliation.

“It makes me nervous, especially having a child of my own now,” said Wittmann, an assistant bank manager who has a nine-monthold son. “I’m the reason he’s in jail as it is. I was the one who had spoken out.”

Greenberg, 58, said he was attacked in 1966 by VanWie as a 7-year-old while visiting his father at a hospital in Cohoes, near Albany, where VanWie worked.

“This VanWie is the worst of the worst,” he said. “He has a 30-year sentence, so they should keep him in. He’s a threat to society.”

VanWie last year became eligible for conditional release after having served two-thirds of his maximum sentence, but remains locked up because he has yet to find suitable housing on the outside, prison officials said.

He pleaded guilty in 1997 of sexually abusing two young girls, but had told cops at the time of his arrest he was relieved to be caught because he had attacked hundreds of other kids dating back four decades.