Parole bid in Brink’s heist pushed back
Former Weather Underground member Judith Clark's push for a new parole hearing was delayed again Tuesday, following a state appeals court decision.
Clark, who has been behind bars for 35 years for her role in the 1981 Brink's armored car robbery that left two cops and a guard dead, was granted a new parole hearing in April. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice John Kelley, who ordered that hearing, determined the state Parole Board “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” when it denied Clark parole in April 2017.
Parole board lawyers appealed Kelley's decision in May — which triggered a stay of his ruling. Clark's lawyers filed paperwork to lift the stay shortly afterward.
In a one-page ruling Tuesday, five judges from the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department, rejected the request. The panel also ruled arguments in the case will be held in October.
“We were hopeful that the court would vacate the stay, and we're disappointed that they did not do that,” said Clark's lawyer, Michael Cardozo.
Regardless of how Clark's appeal plays out, she is automatically due to have a parole hearing in spring 2019, as inmates can have hearings every two years, Cardozo said.
Clark, 68, was with a group of Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground members who carried out a brazen attack on a Brink's car in October 1981.The radical groups hoped the stolen money could fuel their revolution against the U.S. government.
The robbery at Nanuet Mall in Rockland County ended with one Brink's guard and two Nyack police officers dead when authorities confronted the robbers at a nearby New York Thruway exit.
Clark, who acted as a getaway driver, was found guilty of murder and robbery. She has not been accused of opening fire on the guard or police officers.
Gov. Cuomo commuted Clark's sentence in December 2016, enabling her parole bid. Had Cuomo not acted, she would not have been considered for parole until she was 106.
The onetime radical, who had an 11-month-old daughter when she was arrested in 1983, has been touted by many as an ideal candidate for parole. While behind bars at Bedford Hills, she has received two master's degrees, taught inmates with AIDS and worked with the Puppies Behind Bars program.