NEW CITY – Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe blasted Governor Andrew Cuomo for commuting the life sentence of Judith Clark, the getaway driver in the fatal Brink’s armored car robbery in 1981.
Zugibe told members of the Rockland Business Association on Thursday that she should not be eligible for parole. And calling the governor’s commutation “absurd,” the DA suggested Cuomo had an ulterior motive.
“I just have to assume it’s political,” Zugibe said. “I can’t give you an answer. The evidence was clear and obvious and supported by forensic evidence. So to suggest there is another interpretation is nonsense.”
During the incident, two police officers and a brink’s guard were shot and killed by the members of the Weather Underground, the radical group that pulled off the heist.
Zugibe expressed his outrage that Clark could soon walk free considering that she had “lied” about several details of her involvement in the incident.
Though Clark claims to have not been present for the fatal shootout, Zugibe maintains there is concrete forensic evidence linking her to the scene of the crime. When arrested Clark was found to have glass shards embedded in her clothing and purse; FBI analysis concluded that the glass came from both the U-Haul truck the suspects were driving, as well as the police cruiser the truck rammed in a desperate attempt to drive through a police barricade, the DA said.
Zugibe also said that while Clark is often portrayed as an “unwitting getaway driver who never got out of the car and had no role in planning the robbery” informants placed her within the Weather Underground.
The FBI informants claim that Clark was present at many planning meetings and was a vocal proponent of resorting to violence if confronted by the police. Given these revelations, the Rockland D.A. feet Clark is undeserving of parole and that Governor Cuomo’s decision to officially commute her original sentence to 35- years –to-life was “absurd.”
Zugibe also spoke briefly about opioid epidemic that is currently ravaging the United States. He it as a “man-made epidemic” accusing pharmaceutical companies of heavily and dishonestly advertising opioids to both doctors and patients, creating a generation of addicts.
The D.A. said 64,000 Americans died of heroin overdoses last year and 75 percent of them where using prescription painkillers before they started using the illegal street drug. Zugibe said arresting the drug dealers has not been an effective solution to the crisis and that the real solution is to educate doctors and the public on the danger of prescribing highly addictive medications.
