Wednesday, February 13, 2002 11:03:54 AM
POLICE- Cop killer is freed
N.J. COP KILLER FREED AFTER 38-YEAR TERM
Copyright 2002 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New York)...02/12/2002
Convicted cop killer Thomas Trantino walked out of a New Jersey halfway house a free man yesterday after 38 years behind bars, but his plans to take up residence in Staten Island are on hold.
State Parole Board officials said the convicted killer of two Lodi, N.J., police officers - released on his 64th birthday - left Camden's Hope Hall for an unidentified community in South Jersey.
Trantino, 64, hopes to move to Staten Island, where his father, brother and sister live. But scores of current and former police officers who make the borough their home have made it clear they don't want him.
"We don't think that's going to occur," a Parole Board spokesman said of Trantino's application to move to New York. "There is some opposition to him. As a result, his family won't be able to house him there."
Trantino remains under intensive supervision and must check in once a week with his parole officer. He must be at his residence between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., needs permission to leave the state and cannot go into Ocean or Bergen counties, where his victims' relatives live.
Parole Board officials said Trantino can't move to another state unless that state's parole board is willing to assume supervision.
But the killer of two cops in Lodi's Angel Lounge on Aug. 26, 1963, is free to go to the mall during the day, get a driver's license or dine at the fast-food restaurant of his choice.
His longtime lawyer, Roger Lowenstein, said Trantino, who earned a college degree behind bars, has a job lined up in or near Camden.
Trantino and an accomplice, Frank Falco, gunned down Sgt. Peter Voto, 40, and Probationary Officer Gary Tedesco, 22, in the Route 46 bar after the two officers responded to complaints about noise.
Authorities said the two officers were forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head. Falco was killed two days later in a shootout with New York City cops.
Trantino turned himself in and was convicted and sentenced to death. But his sentence, along with those of 21 other inmates on Jersey's Death Row, were commuted when the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.
Painting and writing in prison, Trantino became something of a celebrity. He married and divorced an English professor who was the former wife of one of his lawyers, and was profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes."
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N.J. COP KILLER FREED AFTER 38-YEAR TERM
Copyright 2002 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New York)...02/12/2002
Convicted cop killer Thomas Trantino walked out of a New Jersey halfway house a free man yesterday after 38 years behind bars, but his plans to take up residence in Staten Island are on hold.
State Parole Board officials said the convicted killer of two Lodi, N.J., police officers - released on his 64th birthday - left Camden's Hope Hall for an unidentified community in South Jersey.
Trantino, 64, hopes to move to Staten Island, where his father, brother and sister live. But scores of current and former police officers who make the borough their home have made it clear they don't want him.
"We don't think that's going to occur," a Parole Board spokesman said of Trantino's application to move to New York. "There is some opposition to him. As a result, his family won't be able to house him there."
Trantino remains under intensive supervision and must check in once a week with his parole officer. He must be at his residence between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., needs permission to leave the state and cannot go into Ocean or Bergen counties, where his victims' relatives live.
Parole Board officials said Trantino can't move to another state unless that state's parole board is willing to assume supervision.
But the killer of two cops in Lodi's Angel Lounge on Aug. 26, 1963, is free to go to the mall during the day, get a driver's license or dine at the fast-food restaurant of his choice.
His longtime lawyer, Roger Lowenstein, said Trantino, who earned a college degree behind bars, has a job lined up in or near Camden.
Trantino and an accomplice, Frank Falco, gunned down Sgt. Peter Voto, 40, and Probationary Officer Gary Tedesco, 22, in the Route 46 bar after the two officers responded to complaints about noise.
Authorities said the two officers were forced to their knees and shot in the back of the head. Falco was killed two days later in a shootout with New York City cops.
Trantino turned himself in and was convicted and sentenced to death. But his sentence, along with those of 21 other inmates on Jersey's Death Row, were commuted when the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972.
Painting and writing in prison, Trantino became something of a celebrity. He married and divorced an English professor who was the former wife of one of his lawyers, and was profiled on CBS' "60 Minutes."
The PUBLIC SAFETY FORUM http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=938
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