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Parole granted for driver in deadly 1981 Brink's heist

ALBANY, N.Y. — Former radical activist Judith Clark has been granted parole after serving more than 37 years behind bars for her role as getaway driver in a deadly 1981 Brink's armored truck robbery in New York.

Clark's spokesman says her parole was approved Wednesday. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised Clark's behavior as a model prisoner when he commuted her 75-years-to-life sentence in 2016 to make her eligible for parole. The 69-year-old inmate has trained service dogs, founded an AIDS education program and counseled mothers behind bars.

Clark had a parole hearing April 3 and presented support statements from more than 2,000 people. But some law enforcement officials and families of victims opposed her release. The $1.6 million Brink's heist in suburban New York led to the shooting deaths of two police officers and a security guard.

The parole board first denied Clark's release in 2017, saying she was "still a symbol of violent terroristic crime."

In this Nov. 24, 1981 file photo, Weather Underground member Judith Clark is handcuffed as she is escorted into Rockland County Courthouse, in New City, N.Y. Supporters of Clark, age 70, a former radical activist who has served more than 36 years of a life sentence for her role in a deadly 1981 Brinks heist, are asking a state panel to grant her parole.

Judith Alice Clark (born November 23, 1949). Her parents were members of the American Communist Party for many years. As an infant, Clark lived in the Soviet Union from 1950 to 1953.

Pursued by police after the WUO’s dissolution in the mid-1970s, Clark continued her course independently through the rest of the decade, working frequently the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army.

When the May 19th Communist Organization was founded in 1976, Clark became a member.

On October 20, 1981, a Brink’s armored truck was robbed of $1.6 million by six men at the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, New York. During the robbery, Peter Paige, a Brink’s guard, was killed and guard Joseph Trombino was seriously injured. As the men escaped from the robbery, the van into which they had switched was stopped by a police barricade and two Nyack police officers, Waverly Brown and Edward O’Grady, were killed during the gun battle that ensued. Clark was the driver of a nearby getaway car, into which one of the robbers and David Gilbert jumped after the gun battle. After a car chase, Clark was arrested as she reached for a loaded weapon. Also arrested at the scene was Kathy Boudin, who served 22 years in prison and has been released on parole.

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/02/rockland-officials-to-cuomo-dont-free-brinks-robbery-getaway-driver/

https://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/21/ex_weather_underground_member_kathy_boudin