Orangetown Board Petitions Parole Board To Deny Convicted Killer

The Orangetown Town Board continued to support efforts to ensure that convicted murders Richard LaBarbera and Robert McCain remain in jail this week.

The board passed a resolution Dec. 13 to petition the New York State Parole Board to deny their requests.

McCain and Richard LaBarbara were convicted of murdering 16-year-old Paula Bohovesky of Pearl River Oct. 28, 1980. Both were sentenced to 25-years-to-life and became eligile for parole in 2005. They have parole hearings every two years.

LaBarbara was denied parole May 11, 2011. McCain's hearing was set for June, but his request for a postponement was granted and it was moved to December. It was postponed again last week until January.

"It has just been postponed again, which gives us some concerns," said Councilman Denis Troy. "We don't know why it was postponed in the first place. We don't know why it was postponed again. We took petitions to the town and online. We have 15,000-plus signatures on this. I don't know if they think you are going to fall asleep and not follow up. One of the things we did is mke sure we are following up agan."

Troy is on the Petition for Paula Committee along with Councilman Tom Diviny, Rockland County Legislator John Murphy (R-Pearl River), Betsy Saetre and Bill Schule. Murphy recently asked for direct letters to be sent to the parole board.