Suit tossed, cop killer to get out of jail

CONVICTED cop killer Herman Bell will be paroled from prison next week, now that an Albany judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the widow of one of his victims.

Judge Richard Koweek on Friday ruled that the state parole board was following the proper protocols in March when it ordered Bell released from his 44-year incarceration .

Bell was to go free April 17, but his exit was delayed a week so Koweek could rule on the suit filed by Diane Piagentini, the widow of Police Officer Joseph Piagentini.

Bell, 70, Anthony Bottom and Albert Washington ambushed Officers Piagentini and Waverly Jones after luring them to the Colonial Park Houses — now the Rangel Houses — on W. 159th St. with a bogus 911 call on May 21, 1971.

Jones was shot in the head and died instantly, but the killers shot Piagentini 22 times.

Cops arrested Bell after he traveled to the West Coast, where he killed another cop, officials said. He was arrested in 1973 and convicted of killing the two NYPD officers in 1979.

Piagentini’s lawsuit claimed that the parole board did not review the sentencing minutes of the 1979 conviction and demanded a new hearing.

State officials admitted the parole board reviewed the minutes after making its decision, but filed an amended decision, claiming that the minutes didn’t change their finding.

The city’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association plans to appeal the ruling and will seek a new court order to keep Bell behind bars while the case moves forward.