PAROLE TWIST
Key Clark voter wed to murderer
The member of the state parole board who cast the tie-breaking vote that granted early release to former Weather Underground terrorist Judith Clark is married to a convicted murderer — a revelation that has outraged Clark’s victims and their families.
Former Nyack Detective Arthur Keenan, who was shot and wounded during the infamous 1981 Brinks robbery in Rockland County, was stunned to learn from The Post that parole-board member Tana Agostini had ruled on Clark’s case.
“I’m very shocked that Agostini would be allowed to make a decision on someone who is a murderer,” Keenan said Sunday. “It’s a conflict of interest,” he added. “She should have recused herself.”
Michael Paige — whose father, Brinks guard Peter Paige, was among three people killed in the Rockland County bloodbath — also said that Agostini should have bowed out.
“You’re married to a convicted murderer who also got parole. How is that not related?” Paige fumed.
“She would have some bias in making her decision in favor of parole,” he added. “It doesn’t smell right.”
Last year, following Agostini’s 2017 appointment to the parole board, The Post exclusively revealed how she married Thomas O’Sullivan while he was serving 25 years to life in prison for the killing of a drug dealer in Queens.
At the time they wed, Agostini was working as a state Assembly staffer who dealt with prison issues. She helped win O’Sullivan’s release in 2013 by lobbying Parole Board Chairman Bob Dennison.
Agostini was nominated to her seat on the Parole Board by Gov. Cuomo — who also granted Clark clemency in 2016, making her eligible for parole.
Clark had been sentenced to 75 years to life in prison.
She was rejected following her first appearance before the board in 2017.
Agostini did not take part in that decision, but she’s listed as the “deciding” member in last week’s 2-to-1 ruling that granted Clark parole.
Keenan accused Cuomo of intentionally naming Agostini to the Parole Board so that she would set killers free.
“It looks like this was done on purpose,” he said. “This is part of Cuomo’s radical agenda.”
Agostini’s phone was out of service Sunday and she couldn’t be reached, but a spokesman for the Parole Board defended her handling of Clark’s case.
“Tana Agostini was named to the New York State Board of Parole based on her extensive knowledge of the criminal-justice system gathered in part from her years of working for the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Correction,” spokesman Thomas Mailey said.
“To ignore her experience and attack her personal character — without any legitimate basis at all — is shameless and patently offensive.”
Cuomo’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Clark, 69, is scheduled to be released from the maximum-security women’s prison in Bedford Hills as early as May 15, according to the prison system’s Web site.