New York’s Parole Board is a patronage mill stuffed with leftist ideologues and political has-beens who each rake in an astounding $190,000 yearly — including at least one member who married a cold-blooded killer.
A Post examination of the 16 members — whose salaries have skyrocketed 87% since 2019, even as they freed 43 cop killers in the past eight years — is almost as disturbing as their pro-criminal decisions.
Heading the list is Tana Agostini.
She used her clout as a staffer of the state Assembly committee overseeing prisons in 2013 to engineer the parole of Thomas O’Sullivan — whose three-decade prison stint for the hired 1982 murder of a Queens drug dealer included an escape and biting off part of an inmate’s nose.
Agostini fell in love with and married O’Sullivan while he was in prison and successfully pressed the Parole Board to free her husband.
In 2017, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo tapped Agostini to serve on the board. She’s among 11 Democratic cronies the NYC mayoral frontrunner appointed or re-appointed to the panel. All are still serving as holdovers — some under terms that expired more than five years ago.
The current board is also filled with former lefty state legislators, Legal Aid Society lawyers, public defenders and other longtime prisoner-rights advocates. A handful of ex-parole and probation officers and former prosecutors round out the group.
Cuomo “stacked the parole board with his leftist friends who have no appreciation for the sacrifice our police make, and it is just horrific and inexcusable that his board has released 43 convicted cop killers,” former Gov. George Pataki told The Post.
The Republican called Cuomo’s appointees another example of his “abject failure as governor to understand the impact of violent crime,” which also includes Cuomo signing controversial bail reform into law in 2019 widely blamed for New York’s rising recidivism rates.
“It’s hard for me to believe that anyone who cares about public safety or protecting the police who risk their lives for our safety could have allowed this to happen — but Andrew Cuomo certainly did,” Pataki said.
The board began its wave of releasing cop-killers in 2017, after Cuomo reshaped how it decides whether to grant parole.
The new guidelines, which were backed by liberal activists, require the board to consider an inmate’s “progress” behind bars, as well as their risk to society, with such factors outweighing the egregiousness of the original crime, sources told The Post.
The board also considers age. Many paroled inmates have been 60 or older.
Murderer David McClary — the ruthless gangbanger who assassinated rookie NYPD cop Edward Byrne in Queens in 1988 on the orders of a drug kingpin — could become the 44th cop killer freed by the board when he heads before the it later this month, The Post exclusively reported last week.
Being a parole board member became lucrative under Cuomo, with salaries soaring 67% through two separate raises — going from $101,600 to $170,000 by 2021.
Board members under Hochul received an additional 12% raise in January, bringing their overall salary to $190,000. The pay hike was approved in November by the state Commission of Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation as part of a larger package that included fat raises for commissioners and board members at other state agencies.
The huge pay hike comes as the board’s workload is apparently decreasing.
The board handled 11,336 cases in 2022 — down 45% from 20,504 four years earlier, according to a legislative report released last year. There are two more board members now than in 2022, but still short of the 19-member capacity. Current data on cases was not immediately available.
The $190,000-a-year salary is an “insane amount to pay people whose only qualification is that they’ll release every criminal they meet,” fumed a veteran NYPD cop.
“There are plenty of former cops who could do a better and fairer job than the current parole board,” the police officer said. “They would give breaks to people who really deserve it, but they wouldn’t forget that they have a responsibility to the victims, too.”
Parole hearings are held by a panel of three board members selected randomly “by a computer program,” said a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesperson. Panelists go to regional officials statewide to conduct interviews with convicts over video-conference calls, and render a decision after deliberating.
Victims’ families do not attend hearings. Instead, their “victim impact statements” are presented to the panel. Families can give testimony to a parole board member, but the inmate isn’t present.
The hearings are not public, and what scant information exists about board decisions must be obtained through an official Freedom of Information Request that takes weeks or months to fulfill.
Inmates can have hearings every 12 to 18 months after they become parole eligible, and families can draft a new impact statement each time.
Prisoner-rights activists have long called for the state to employ 19 board members to speed up cases, and Hochul has repeatedly promised she would.
Board members are nominated by the governor, and must be confirmed by the state Senate.
Five Hochul nominees now sit on the board – including former state Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns (D-Brooklyn), whom she named chairman in 2023.
However, some of her nominees were rejected or ripped by Senate members for not being woke enough.
For instance, Hochul in 2023 nominated four candidates — including two ex-probation officers, a former public defender and a former police official, New York Focus reported in October.
The Senate’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus issued a statement condemning the nominations, saying they’ve “been closely associated with the system we seek to reform, which raises profound concerns.”
The Senate eventually confirmed all the appointees except former NYPD Chief Legal Officer Ernest F. Hart.
Another Hochul appointee, Brandon Stradford of Staten Island, was fired by the governor in 2023 after just two months on the job, following a bizarre series of incidents that included him showing up late for meetings and falling asleep on the job, New York Focus reported.
Stradford declined comment.
Jim Walden, a longtime lawyer and former federal prosecutor running for mayor as an independent, said he’s “shocked there’s no former high-ranking cops on the board.”
“It’s a glaring hole — skewing the balance of experience to the left on every parole decision,” he said. “That experience is critical. Of the few in law enforcement, none have ever had to patrol a neighborhood or keep it safe.”
Hochul’s office did not return messages.
Cuomo’s spokesman Rich Azzopardi defended the ex-governor’s nominations, saying “this is an independent board whose members have a variety of backgrounds.”
“Half of our appointees had experience working in the system in places, such as a district attorney’s office, a local probation office, the federal prison system, the city corrections department or the state division of parole and were confirmed by the state Senate under both Republican and Democratic control,” he said.
“All had to go through a rigorous and exhaustive confirmation process — during which senators probe the prospective parole board member’s views and review their records and qualifications to determine their fitness to serve.”
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These are the 16 members of the state Parole Board:
Tana Agostini, 58
Appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 2017
She married to a convicted killer whose three-decade prison stint included an escape and biting off part of an inmate’s nose, according to authorities. Agostini fell in love with Thomas O’Sullivan, 57, while he was still behind bars and she worked as a staffer on the state Assembly committee overseeing the prison system. She even lobbied the parole board’s chair to back O’Sullivan’s bid for freedom — and the board paroled him in 2013. The Post exclusively revealed the couple’s secret relationship in 2018.
Darryl C. Towns, 63, chairman
Appointed by Gov. Hochul, 2023
The former Democratic state assemblyman later served as then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Housing Commissioner – and is the son of former Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn). He’s had his own run in with cops too, busted for drunk driving in Mount Vernon in 2011. His wife, Karen Boykin-Towns, is vice chair of the NAACP National Board of Directors. She also worked for 22 years for pharma giant Pfizer – where she became its first chief diversity officer in 2008.
Carlton Mitchell, 74
Appointed by Cuomo, 2019
The bio on the board’s website says Mitchell worked in the non-profit sector to bring about “social transformation.” He voted in 2023 to release Edward M. Kindt, 39, who was convicted of raping and murdering a jogger in 1999 in upstate New York. Kindt encountered Penny Brown jogging on a walking trail in upstate Salamanca with her two dogs. At his hearing, he told the Parole Board he dragged her off the trail and sexually assaulted her before strangling her with one of her dog’s leashes as she fought for her life.
Erik Berliner, 50
Appointed by Cuomo, 2017
Berliner was previously deputy commissioner of the city Department of Correction. He has also been a consultant for organizations helping criminals in need of behavioral health services.
Michael S. Corley, 55
Appointed by Cuomo, 2019
Corley is a minister at Getsemane Baptist Church in Hollis, Queens. His bio on the board’s web page claims he is a trained “Restorative Justice Practitioner,” looking for ways to keep people out of jail through mediation and counseling. The site says he has also “helped countless justice involved youth and adults,” a euphemism for criminals.
Laura El-Bahtity, 51
Appointed by Hochul, 2024
A long-time public defender, she focused her career on indigent criminal defense, according to the DOCCS website. Most recently, she worked as a managing attorney in Buffalo’s liberal Legal Aid Bureau, which helps criminals get out of jail. “As a public defender, she witnessed first hand the disparities and challenges her clients faced in the criminal justice system and in re-entering the community,” the website states.
Ana M. Enright, 58
Appointed: Hochul 2023
She was the state’s deputy commissioner for community supervision, where she led state-wide parole and reentry operations. She is a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice – a breeding ground for woke prosecutors.
Donna Henken, 66
Appointed by Hochul, 2023
She previously worked as an assistant district attorney in the trial division of the left-leaning Manhattan DA’s office. She later joined the Legal Aid Society’s juvenile rights practice repping children in abuse and neglect cases. After that, she joined the Legal Aid Society working for the adolescent intervention and diversion team, trying to keep teens criminally charged as adults out of jail.
Erin McCabe, 42
Appointed: Hochul 2023
She was a probation supervisor with the Erie County Probation Department, assigned to oversee officers who worked with youths. She previously worked as a probation officer for 15 years.
Chanwoo Lee, 65
Appointed: Cuomo 2019
She was an attorney in private practice in Queens for over 25 years. She worked with the Legal Aid Society, and was a member of the city’s advisory committee on the judiciary since 2002.
Sheila Samuels, Age unknown
Appointed by Cuomo, 2019
She served as an assistant district attorney in upstate Orange County, handling cases involving narcotics and alcohol, sexual abuse, and assaults. She also assisted with the development and launch of a drug treatment court to keep criminals out of jail.
Elsie Segarra, 59
Appointed by Cuomo, 2019
She worked for probation and parole offices in Albany. As a parole officer she worked with outside agencies and law enforcement partners such as the DEA, FBI Cyber Sex Unit, ATF and the New York State Police. She is a trained polygraph examiner.
Charles Davis, 52
Appointed by Cuomo 2017
A licensed mental health counselor and addiction specialist who has been involved in various areas of child welfare, juvenile justice, and criminal justice, according to the state’s website. “When human beings experience trauma or severe life stressors, it is not uncommon for their lives to unravel,” his bio states in the wokest of language. “He has a great passion to bring healing to individuals adversely impacted by behavioral health challenges who are justice-involved.”
Tyece Drake, 52
Appointed by Cuomo, 2017
She is described on the state’s website as a mental health professional with over 20 years of experience. Her criminal justice career began with juvenile offenders but expanded to reentry services with the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Joseph Crangle, 57
Appointed by Gov. David Patterson, 2008; reappointed by Cuomo, 2014
A former assistant court analyst with the state Office of Court Administration, he was assigned to the Domestic Violence Part of the Buffalo City Court, where he monitored defendants’ compliance with court orders.
Marc A. Coppola, 56
Appointed by Cuomo, 2012
A former Democratic state senator and majority leader of the City of Buffalo Common Council, he previously worked for five years as a legislative liaison for the Division of Parole.
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