Throw away the key
Don’t parole 2nd cop-killer: widow
The widow off an NYPD officerer gunned down byy Herman Bell and his cohorts in 1971 delivered an impassioned plea Friday to the statee parole board to keepep one of the cold-ldblooded killers be-hind bars.
Just months after Bell was freed by board members over her objections, Dianee Piagentini imploredred the panel to keep Anthony Bottom locked up for life.
“We are here for the second time giving a victimimpact statement for the denial of parole for An- thony Bottom — the killer and assassinator of my husband, Joseph Piagentini, and his partner, Waverly Jones,” she told reporters before speaking with the board. “Anthony Bottom never ever sshould be released ffrofrom prison. My huhusband and Wavverly Jones are not coming home, and Anthony Bottom should never be released . . . He swore at ththe sentencing he coucould never be rehabilitated. If he gets out, he will continue to work for his cause.” Black Revolutionary Army members Bottom, Bell and Albert Washing- ton were convicted of luring Piagentini and Jones to a Harlem housing project with a bogus 911 call and then opening fire on them in an ambush.
Jones died instantly, while a wounded Piagentini begged for his life, noting that he had a wife and two young daughters at home — before Bell finished him off with the cop’s own service weapon.
Washington died of liver cancer in 2000, while Bot- tom — who is also known as Jalil Abdul Muntaqim — has already been denied parole seven times since becoming eligible in 2002.
But Diane Piagentini and others are worried because Bell walked out of prison in April after convincing the board that he’s reformed and sorry for what he did — despite expressing no remorse and painting himself as a “political prisoner” for most of his four decades behind bars.
Piagentini noted that John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, was denied parole just a few months after Bell was released.
A lawyer for the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association said there is no set date for the parole board to make its decision on Bottom, but that it usually comes a month after the victim-impact statement — so they expect to know by mid-November.