Fund Is Started to Defend Paroled Killer in Beating Case [Trantino]

CAMDEN, N.J., Nov. 10 — A Quaker official who helped set up a counseling job for Thomas Trantino, the paroled killer of two police officers, said on Monday that she had started a defense fund in his behalf.

The official, Priscilla Adams, regional secretary of the Haddonfield Monthly Meeting, a Quaker congregation in Camden County, said many Quakers and non-Quakers alike expressed support for Mr. Trantino after his arrest last Thursday on charges of beating his 33-year-old companion.

"I'm getting calls left and right from people saying, `What can I do to help?' " Ms. Adams said. "It's hundreds of people that are hurt by this, Quakers and non-Quakers. People are in tears about this. He's really a remarkable person." Mr. Trantino has denied the beating charges through his lawyer.

Ms. Adams said Mr. Trantino had helped many parolees, convicts living in halfway houses and people at risk of veering into a life of crime after he began counseling them in a downtown office in Camden last January. Besides the counseling there, Mr. Trantino speaks to students at Quaker schools and before community groups in southern New Jersey, Ms. Adams said.

His message to all is to abhor violence, stay free of alcohol and drugs, and find ways to lead positive lives, free of crime, Ms. Adams said. In his speeches, she added, Mr. Trantino regularly expresses emotions that she called deeper than remorse and sorrow for Sgt. Peter Voto, 40, and Officer Gary Tedesco, 22, the two policemen in Lodi, N.J., he was convicted of killing in a bar in August 1963.

Mr. Trantino, who is 65, served 38 years in prison for those murders before the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered his release in 2001. The court found that the state parole board, which refused to grant him parole nine times, had improperly denied him freedom by bending to political pressure.

Mr. Trantino was arrested in his counseling office last Thursday after an argument with his companion, identified as Carmen Gonzalez. The Camden County prosecutor's office charged him with beating her five times since Oct. 27, including four times in an apartment they shared in Camden.

Hours after the arrest, the State Parole Board filed a warrant charging Mr. Trantino with violating parole, a move that could lead to his being ordered back to prison.

The warrant requires that Mr. Trantino be held without bail for 14 days from the date of his arrest. The county prosecutor, Vincent P. Sarubbi, asked the board on Monday to schedule a hearing for Mr. Trantino before the end of the 14-day period. A spokesman for the board, Edward Bray, said the board would announce a hearing date on Wednesday.

In a news conference last Friday outside the apartment she shared with Mr. Trantino, Ms. Gonzalez contended that he had never beaten her and that the charges were false.

Afterward, Mr. Sarubbi said victims of domestic violence frequently recanted out of remorse or fear. He said he had no intention of abandoning the prosecution of Mr. Trantino.

Law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation say Ms. Gonzalez made tape recorded statements about the beatings. She showed arresting police officers bruises on her arms and legs that she said Mr. Trantino had inflicted, Mr. Sarubbi said.

Mr. Trantino's lawyer, Justin Loughry, said on Monday that he was "very skeptical about the case," in part because of Ms. Gonzalez's comments last Friday. "We maintain our innocence," Mr. Loughry said.

Ms. Adams, the Quaker official, declined to discuss Mr. Trantino's relationship with Ms. Gonzalez or whether he had been counseling her.

Ms. Adams said she did not know how many people Mr. Trantino had counseled since starting the service in January. She said that the program is financed by donations and grants from small foundations and that he is the only paid staff member.

The program is overseen by an 11-member steering committee that includes a prison psychologist, a criminologist, substance abuse experts and nurses, Ms. Adams said.

"The entire steering committee stands by Tommy 100 percent and totally believes in him," she said.

The Camden County prosecutor's office charged him with beating her five times since Oct. 27, including four times in an apartment they shared in Camden.

What is it with these people? Are they crazy?

"He's really a remarkable person."

This, following yesterday's news about the millionaire who shot an elderly neighbor and then cut his body up being found innocent by a jury, is very concerning. My take on it is this..These sociopathic types are the most charming individuals in our human community. In any case where any kind of charge is made against them, their supporters will rally 'round to protect and, usually, will immediately begin to demonize their victim or victims. I have seen this over and over in cases of high profile spouse abusers. I was so moved by the injustice of it that I chose the topic for a big research paper I had to do for my medical training. What does society do when it has among it's population people who are indorsed by some to kill without consequence. Look at O.J. Those who rush to the side of a sociopath could so easily be his next victim because he will play the role of the supporter or the lover but he only loves himself. I use the pronoun "he" because most of these people are male. However, they can also be female.

Trantino's girlfriend, Carmen Gonzalez, 33, told police that she had been trying to leave his office when he restrained her. She also told authorities in detail about how he had beaten her several times in the previous two weeks.

Gonzalez later told reporters that she had lied to police about what happened. But prosecutors said she had not gone to them to change her story.

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said he was going ahead with charges because someone else who works in the building saw Trantino with Gonzalez in a headlock, and authorities said the woman's legs were bruised.

snip

Roger Lowenstein, a lawyer and friend of Trantino's who visited him in jail during the weekend, said Trantino had spent hours talking with police about Gonzalez and problems she was having.

Trantino said he had restrained Gonzalez because she had been threatening to kill herself, Lowenstein said.

snip

Gonzalez, who said she was on a sedative when she talked to police, recanted after reporters and neighbors swarmed the streets near the apartment she shared with Trantino for hours talking about the case.

Journalists knocked on her door asking for interviews. At one point, neighbors banged on it telling her that she needed to come outside and help free her boyfriend.

That is a reason Gonzalez's recanting may have been a lie, Price said.

"She could be in fear for her life, even in the neighborhood," she said.

In 1998, Ms. Gonzalez was sentenced to seven years in prison on a robbery conviction in Essex County, according to Corrections Department records. She was paroled in July 2000, arrested again on a parole violation in late 2000 and then held in a residential treatment center for drug addicts until last February, the records show. Three months later she was arrested again on a parole violation and held until last August, the records said.

I don't get it! She was sentenced to 7yrs. for robbery and paroled in 2yrs. She had documented parole violations 3 differnt times in 2yrs and was still on the streets. Sounds to me like the NJ attorney general needs to persue charges against the parole board members.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.