A serial burglar was free to terrorize Big Apple businesses more than a dozen times because of the state’s lax bail laws — until his flagrant disregard for the law finally caught up to him, The Post has learned.
Orest Kovalshyn, 37, had a string of commercial burglary arrests in Queens and Brooklyn dating to 2022, but was repeatedly cut loose because state criminal justice reforms barred judges from setting bail.
Even when Brooklyn prosecutors won a conviction last year that landed Kovalshyn a 1-to-3-year state prison stint, he was back on the streets in less than a year — and getting busted and released again.
But his latest arrest, just months after he left prison, finally did him in, when Kovalshyn blew off court one too many times, got pinched for two more Queens heists and violated his state parole.
The 2019 criminal justice reforms prohibits Empire State judges from setting bail in most criminal cases, particularly non-violent theft and larceny offenses.
One frustrated law enforcement source said Kovalshyn should’ve been locked up months ago.
“He was too busy breaking into stores at night to get up in the morning to go to court,” the source told The Post. “Same old story. They don’t hold criminals accountable and innocent citizens are victimized.”
Kovalshyn already had a string of heists under his belt when the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office hit him with charges in eight different borough burglaries between November 2022 and January 2023. It was enough to get him sent upstate to the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility in July 2024 on a sentence of up to three years.
State correction records show that he was back on the streets by the end of November.
In early June, Brooklyn prosecutors charged Kovalshyn with three more burglary cases dating to August 2023, while the Queens DA’s office added two more cases tied to thefts on Dec. 16, 2022 and Sept. 8, 2023 — all incidents that predated his state prison stint.
But even so, the serial thief remained free and stopped showing up for his court hearings.
That prompted the state Department of Correction and Community Supervision to issue a parole violation against him on June 27, a department rep said.
Then came another batch of fresh charges — Kovalshyn’s latest crime wave came when he stole $200 each from Xugar Salon on Aug. 28 and Fei Yan Nail Spa on Sept. 9 in Queens.
He was arrested on Sept. 30 and finally held without bail for skipping out on court and with the state parole violation hanging over his head, records show.
“Currently, his recent arrests are under investigation by this department and a new violation of release report will be prepared once the parole officer’s investigation has been completed,” a spokesperson for the state corrections department said in an email.
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