POUGHKEEPSIE – Thirty-nine-year-old convicted killer Edward Kindt, who killed a neighbor of his in western New York in 1999 at the age of 15, was released from Elmira State Correctional Facility on Thursday and quietly placed in Dutchess County. State Senator Rob Rolison, a retired Town of Poughkeepsie Police detective who represents the area, is outraged by the Poughkeepsie placement of the notorious killer.
Kindt was a 15-year-old member of the Seneca Nation when he raped and killed 39-year-old Penny Brown, a nurse, midwife, wife, and mother on Mother’s Day in 1999. Mrs. Brown had gone for a jog with her two dogs when she was murdered. Her body was discovered the next day.
When he was convicted in 1999, Kindt was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. He served 24 years.
Kindt interviewed with the Parole Board in February and the members voted 2-1 to set the killer free. He was originally slated to be placed in Cattaraugus or Chautauqua counties but the public outcry from residents and State Senator George Borello railed against the plan to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS). In addition to the public outcry from the first two counties, the Seneca Nation banned Kindt from all tribal property for at least one year. DOCCS then, without asking any Dutchess County law enforcement, decided to place him in Dutchess in a “structured residential contracted program.” DOCCS said that Kindt will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device while staying at Exodus House in Poughkeepsie.
Senator Rolison learned of the plan from one of his colleagues on Thursday morning and immediately went into action. “We immediately began to contact local law enforcement officials such as the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office as well as state officials at DOCCS to confirm and gather more information,” Rolison told Mid-Hudson News. Once he confirmed that Kindt had been turned away from other locations, he took issue with DOCCS. “This illustrates a fundamental breakdown in Albany’s misguided criminal justice policies. Equally as disturbing was the lack of communication from the state and its decision to release this individual into the community without proper notification, including no outreach to local law enforcement.”
Rolison vowed to maintain contact with local law enforcement to monitor the actions and behavior of the convicted killer. US Rep. Marc Molinaro, who represented Dutchess County also weighed in on Kindt’s relocation to Poughkeepsie, saying “Penny Brown’s family says New York’s system failed them. I agree. Soft on crime laws in New York are eroding public safety and have allowed our justice system to become a revolving door for repeat criminals.”
