Kin suing in death at Rikers
THE PENDING parole of a Black Liberation Army cop killer left the families of his two NYPD victims with conflicting emotions: One elated, the other outraged.
The controversial April release of Herman Bell, 70, was praised Thursday by the widow of Officer Waverly Jones Sr., gunned down alongside partner Joseph Piagentini in a May 21, 1971, ambush.
Mary Jones, now 80, said her family was “very happy” to learn about Bell’s impending release.
“I’ve learned over the years that hate is a disease,” she told the Daily News from her home in Henrico, Va. “When you keep hate in your life, then your whole life is empty.
“I wasn’t brought up to hate. I just feel that 45 years is a long time.”
Although Bell was convicted, expressed remorse for the NYPD killings, and pleaded guilty in the 1971 killing of a San Francisco cop, Mary Jones said she believes in the killer’s innocence.
“I don’t believe any one of them was involved,” she said. “During that time, J. Edgar Hoover wanted someone to get someone for this crime. He probably told them to get anybody for it. All they wanted was a body.”
Bell, after 45 years in jail, was approved for parole on his eighth appearance before state officials.
He and two cohorts lured the officers to a W. 159th St. housing project and opened fire, with Jones dying instantly after taking a bullet to the back of his head from 6 inches away.
Piagentini was tortured and shot 22 times as he begged the ruthless shooters for his life. The young cop left behind a wife and two daughters who angrily opposed the decision to parole Bell.
“We’ve been betrayed,” said widow Diane Piagentini, accompanied Thursday by her girls Deborah and Mary. “Letting a cop killer out of prison is a betrayal to police officers putting their life on the line.
“It is a betrayal to the citizens of the United States, to let killers out among us to kill again.”
Bell’s co-defendant Anthony Bottom comes up for parole this June. The third BLA suspect died of cancer while imprisoned in 2000.
Mayor de Blasio, speaking at the 78th Precinct in Brooklyn, blasted the decision to put Bell back on the streets.
“I’m very troubled by it,” said de Blasio. “This was a premeditated killing of a police officer. That should be life in prison, period. There’s nothing else to discuss.”
But Waverly Jones Jr., namesake son of the slain cop, sent a letter to the state parole board expressing his family’s support of releasing Bell.
“The simple answer is (parole) would bring joy and peace as we have already forgiven Herman Bell publicly,” read the letter from Jones Jr.
“On the other hand, to deny him parole again would cause us pain, as we are reminded of the painful episode each time he appears before the board.”
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch, at a news conference with the Piagentinis, called for the firing of the parole board members who voted for Bell’s freedom.
“If you killed a police officer, you don’t get out of prison,” said Lynch. THE FAMILY of a Rikers Island inmate with high blood pressure who died in custody after complaining of serious head pain plans to sue the city.
Joseph Foster begged for medical attention from inside his cell in the Eric M. Taylor Center at Rikers on Dec. 30 starting at 7 a.m., according to another inmate on the floor.
“He kept screaming, ‘I need a doctor!’ ” fellow detainee Carlos Renta told the Daily News.
A jail captain arrived about a half-hour later but did little to assist, according to a notice of claim filed Thursday. The legal filing is a precursor to a wrongful death lawsuit.
Foster, 51, who was serving a six-month sentence for selling crack, was taken to a jail clinic at 7:50 a.m. But by the time he arrived at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens at 10:23 a.m., he was unconscious, medical records show.
He suffered a pontine hemorrhage, a large bleed on his brain. The condition is frequently fatal. Foster died five days later.
Jail officials say officers responded quickly to Foster after he began to complain of severe pain.
The city Law Department declined to comment.