BUFFALO, N.Y. — People in Western New York and especially in Salamanca were shocked in July when they learned a convicted killer and rapist managed to slip away from parole supervision and end up back in that Cattaraugus County community.
Edward Kindt goes back before an administrative law judge for a continued hearing on Thursday. Some fear he may not be punished with more prison time.
This ties in with an effort from a state lawmaker to rollback provisions of a 2021 parole reform law. 2 On Your Side also got some reaction from Gov. Kathy Hochul on Kindt's escape.
There was outrage in 2023 when a state parole board decided to grant Edward Kindt early release from his prison sentence for the Mother's Day 1999 rape and strangulation slaying of Penny Brown by a then-15-year-old Kindt.
But even more fury erupted in July as Kindt broke away from his supervised parole with no notification, until six days later, of the Cattaraugus County Sheriff's Office.
The State Corrections and Community Supervision Department says they are investigating, but we're also seeking answers.
2 On Your Side asked Governor Hochul: "What steps will you take as Governor to make sure something like that doesn't happen again?
Governor: There's a final parole revocation hearing on August 15.
Reporter: He could have been out six days or so.
Governor: Right. He evaded the requirements that were imposed on him. We are finding out how he did that, but he is not the first parolee to be able to cut loose from the electronic monitoring system and to escape.
So the union representing state parole officers now say Kindt is a perfect example of what happened with the 2021 Less Is More Act signed by the governor back then to reform and ease off technical violations for parolees. But they say it took away their accountability power with more prison time over parole violators such as Kindt.
PEF Union Leader and Parole Officer Gina Lopez told reporters: "Absconding is not considered a new crime. Correct? So if you are not following through with any of your parole supervision ... before we would be able to to hold you accountable and say, 'OK, based on this, we can give you a 12-month-hold, 15-month-hold.' But however the way it's written now, the only way, the only thing we can give you is seven days for your first violation of absconding, and you could have left the country."
State Assemblymember Monica Wallace wants to see, with her proposed legislation, a partial rollback of that parole reform measure, really pushed three years ago by New York City area lawmakers.
"Right now if you abscond and leave without telling your officer where you're going, and you go somewhere you're not supposed to go as Edward Kindt did ... it's only seven days if it's you're first violation, up to 30 days if you've had many, many violations. That's ridiculous, and it defies common sense," Wallace said.
Wallace's bill has been stuck in the Assembly Corrections committee.
Wallace says she hopes to "educate" her fellow lawmakers that the original 2021 law went too far. We will see if it works since legislature leaders really backed the original with the push from parole reform advocates .It remains to be seen if Wallace can change their mindset.