I would like to address the statements made by parole board Executive Director Donald Giancioppo. Mr Giancioppo stated that the error had already been noticed and was being corrected. I find fault in this statement due to the fact that no one I spoke to at the Parole Board knew anything other then the fact that Parker was to have a parole hearing in January. They argued with me that I must not have understood how a mandatory sentence was handled. I was made to feel like I was overstepping my bounds by repeatedly stating that Parker was not to come up on bail until May 2009. I have never received an apology. I truly believe that Giancioppo was trying to deflect an egregious error that had been made on the part of his staff. I never spoke to Giancioppo, he is only hearing what his employees at the parole board tell him...to cover their own errors.
As mentioned in the article a spokesman for Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings office stated that the parole board has access to Correctional facility files and sentencing information. It wasn't until a 3rd phone call that I had with the parole board that they checked these records and found THEIR error.
People have to be held accountable for these errors, especially where they do not only effect the convicted person by way of early release, but can be devastating to a family who is trying to mourn a lost family member - when it seems as though all the rights and benefits go toward the convicted.
It would have been nice to at least receive an "Oops, we made a mistake" or other kind of apology instead of trying to cover up the facts with double speak and pat answers.
Parole board error raises alerts
By George Brennan
STAFF WRITER - Cape Cod Times
December 10, 2007
Susan Linhares had reclaimed her life. The endless trips to court in Falmouth and Barnstable from her Mattapoisett home were over.
The Forestdale home belonging to her late mother, Diane Carhart, was sold last month.
And while holiday decorations spur thoughts of her mother, Linhares had stopped obsessing every waking moment about the injustice of a 2½-year jail sentence for the man who killed Carhart in a horrific daytime crash last March on Route 130 in Sandwich. The driver, Christopher Parker, 50, is also serving a concurrent sentence for his fifth conviction for operating under the influence in a separate case.
That all changed Thursday when Linhares opened a letter from the state Parole Board alerting her to a parole hearing for Parker.
Just four months after he started serving a mandatory 24-month sentence in the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, Parker was to have a parole hearing in February, the letter said.
"I sat here steaming," Linhares said, "so much for a mandatory two-year sentence."
Linhares called the parole board victim service coordinator who signed the letter. He initially told her she must be mistaken.
But Linhares was so insistent, parole board officials investigated and determined a mistake was made.
"We're regretful that it happened and we want to make sure it doesn't happen again," parole board Executive Director Donald Giancioppo said.
It was an isolated, administrative error, he said. The agency has 10,000 hearings per year and few mistakes are reported, he said. "We're going to look into this and make any changes necessary."
A spokesman for Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings office said parole board employees can access jail records to avoid errors.
"Had we been asked, we have records he's doing 24 months mandatory sentence," spokesman Roy Lyons said.
Giancioppo said a member of the victim services unit also caught the mistake and was in the process of correcting it when Linhares called.
The Dec. 4 letter from the Parole Board to Linhares said she had until Jan. 4 to tell them she intended to be at the hearing. If she missed the deadline, she would be excluded.
"You hear all the time about them letting these criminals out too early by accident, but I never thought it would happen to me," Linhares said.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney is under scrutiny in his presidential bid for how a judge he appointed handled the case of convicted killer Daniel Tavares. Tavares, who recently completed a prison term for killing his mother, was released without bail on assault charges. He is now accused of killing a couple in Washington.
Linhares wrote to Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry, asking them to investigate the parole board gaffe and create safeguards for victims.
And for the first time in months she's made an entry in her "Justice for Diane" blog. She will return to advocating for stricter sentences and mandatory drug testing in motor vehicle homicide cases, she said.
"There aren't even words to explain how I feel about this," Linhares said, about receiving the Parole Board letter. "I just sat there for five minutes just unable to say anything. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
George Brennan can be reached at gbrennan@capecodonline.com
