NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Andrew Cuomo on Monday granted clemency to a man convicted in the 1981 Brink’s robbery that shook Rockland County, creating a flurry of controversy just hours before the governor resigned.
David Gilbert, 76, was among the six people Cuomo granted clemency to just 4.5 hours before leaving office.
Gilbert had been serving a life sentence for his role as a getaway driver in the $1.6 million heist in Nanuet that left a guard and two police officers dead. He will now be referred to the state parole board for potential release.
The decision was controversial and drew sharp criticism from several lawmakers and the victims’ families.
Rockland County law enforcement officials called the decision an insult to the families of Peter Page, Edward O’Grady and Waverly Brown.
Undersheriff Robert VanCura was at the hospital when O’Grady died and said the clemency news was especially difficult for him to hear.
“Just really defies any logic, really, someone like this… to commute the sentence and make them eligible for parole when they were instrumental in the death of these police officers,” he told WCBS 880.
Cuomo cited the power of redemption and Gilbert's good deeds in prison in his clemency decision. He also noted that Gilbert was not directly responsible for anyone’s death.
However, New York Assemblyman Mike Lawler disagreed and posted a photo on Twitter showing Gilbert on the day of his arrest with several visible bruises.
“This is what David Gilbert looked like the night of the Brink’s Robbery,” Lawler wrote. “He was no innocent bystander.”
Lawler called Cuomo’s decision a “disgusting betrayal” and added that Cuomo’s decision “only confirmed what I’ve always believed about him: Andrew Cuomo is a coward and an awful human being.”
Rockland County Executive Ed Day also had some choice words for Cuomo.
“With his actions tonight, Andrew Cuomo has once again debased himself and the Office of the Governor of the State of New York,” Day said in a statement. “As if victimizing 11 women, including members of his own staff, was not despicable enough, his commutation of the 75-years-to-lifesentence of David Gilbert is a further assault on the people of Rockland and New York State. Andrew Cuomo continues to focus on the well-being of murderers rather than the victims of these horrible offenses.”
Though, not everyone was displeased by the decision. Steve Zeidman, the lawyer and law professor who spearheaded Gilbert's clemency campaign, said he was overjoyed for Gilbert and his family.
Similar controversy arose in 2019, when Gilbert’s fellow getaway driver, Judith Clark, was granted parole. Following that decision, the families of Page and injured Nyack policeman Arthur Keenan sued to try to overturn the State Parole Board’s decision, though they were unsuccessful.