SALAMANCA, N.Y. — Convicted murderer Edward Kindt is still behind bars at Elmira Correctional Facility on this Wednesday evening, one day after we learned he would not be released from custody March 29, as was originally expected.
But the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and its independent parole board have been under increasing pressure even with that delay in his release.
News of the the abrupt delay of Kindt's release came Tuesday from a law enforcement source, who said a parole officer told him this had never happened before and he didn't know what to make of it.
There has been stinging criticism of the parole board's release decision for Kindt, who at age 15 raped and killed Penny Brown in Salamanca in 1999.
And there has been refusal by various officials and even the Seneca Nation to allow Kindt to move back in the region to live. A state lawmaker on Wednesday contacted Acting State Corrections Commissioner Anthony Annucci about Kindt's cited in-prison behavior.
"He committed lewd acts. Exposed himself to women. Fashioned weapons. Was caught with drugs and alcohol inside prison," New York State Senator George Borrello said. "If this is what he's doing in a maximum security prison, imagine what he will doing when he is free on the streets, so this goes back again to the fact that this parole board is out of touch."
A corrections department spokesman says "community preparation" and planning for housing continue for Kindt, who will be released once they are completed.
Borrello noted: "There's no doubt that they've paused this for the moment, so they can reconsider it. There's no doubt that the strong advocacy by myself and so many others has had an impact, and the community's outrage has definitely had an impact, and has given the commissioner and others the reason for pause."
Borrello says acting commissioner Annucci has no power to overturn the independent 14-member parole board. All but one of them were appointed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The senator says a three-member parole panel heard Kindt's case in February. He points out one member from Western New York voted against his release, but two others from elsewhere in the state voted in favor.
Penny Brown's family, which long fought against Kindt's release, feels this is an overall indictment of the parole system.
Brown's daughter Kaitlyn Brown told 2 On Your Side: "Yes, I think we have been failed tremendously. It seems like the priority is the freedom of the criminal actually over the victims."