Reported by Matthew Klimek and James O'Keefe
On August 27, 1964, two Lodi, NJ, police officers, Peter Voto and Gary Tedesco, entered a night club to investigate a disturbance. Inside, a man name Thomas Trantino and an accomplice assaulted the officers, disarmed them, and then commanded them to strip to their underwear. Trantino and his sidekick then taunted and pistol-whipped the officers before finally shooting them execution-style. One of the officers’ brothers found the two slain policemen at the scene. Originally condemned to death, his sentence was commuted to life when the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972. Since 2002, this cop-killer has been walking the streets on parole. Within 18 months, Trantino was under arrest again for charges that he assaulted and restrained his girlfriend. He was acquitted. A conviction would have put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Following his release, Trantino had some difficulty securing work but he has now found a job, one that brought him to Rutgers-Camden on January 22. The Friends Transitional Support Services, a Quaker organization that reaches out to ex-inmates, was looking for a program director. They chose Trantino. Now, the FTSS and Prof. Drew Humphries, director of the criminal justice program at Camden, have cosponsored a panel to discuss “How to Survive on Parole and Probation.”
Of the thousands of NJ parolees, who should they chose as their public liaison but Trantino. Humphries was quoted as saying in the Star-Ledger that the panel was meant as “an open forum for discussion, no matter how controversial.” Rather it would seem she means “as controversial as possible.” Leah Morris, an employee of the Office of Public Defender, sat on the panel with Trantino and Humphries, though she was not acting in any connection with the office. The discussion was held in a university auditorium, which the two sponsors leased privately from Rutgers. No representative from the New Jersey State Parole Board was present at the event. Their delegate withdrew when the board learned that Trantino would be on the panel. Edward Bray, Parole Board spokesman, told the Philadelphia Enquirer, “It’s inappropriate for one of our officers to be sitting with a parolee... and be expected to treat him as a peer.” State law enforcement officials were outraged, and pleaded with the University to cancel, but to no avail. “He’s not someone we want to put up as an example of a good
parolee,” said Bray. Dr. Humphries would disagree. “Tommy Trantino is on the panel because he’s a role model for those who have come out of prison and are looking to turning their lives around,” she said. “Tommy is a very peaceful person. He’s done a good job. I don’t think he’ll turn into an ax murderer.”
And what if he were to turn into an ax murderer? How would that be any different than what he already is: a first degree double cop killer? If the purpose of this panel was to build a positive rapport between parolees and the community, why did the sponsors choose the perpetrator of a premeditated murder which left two families and an entire community bereft, and who is now freely walking the streets after narrowly escaping his capital sentence, as their lead man? To the Camden department of criminal justice, exactly what is their definition of the word “justice?” Still, Trantino wishes someone from the Parole Board had been present. “I’m willing to talk to those police officers,” he said. “I’m willing to go in to their training and talk to them. I used to talk to the police in prison and I have no problem with police.” No, he only executes them. “We recognize that Tommy is a controversial figure and for many people it’s rubbing salt in very tender wounds,” said Humphries. “But the difficulties of people in parole and probation is important work, so we do it.” More important, presumably, than the dignity of these two officers and the difficulties of their families following their loss. Two public servants, Voto and Tedesco, lost their lives, but their murderer not only still has both his life and his freedom, but is honored as a role mode. Of the law enforcement community, Trantino said, “It’s a club... The way they survive is, when Tommy Trantino’s name is mentioned, they snap to attention and say ‘RRRR.’”
NJO: Originally printed in the February 2005 issue of The Centurion.
