Crime & Safety

Father Implores Parole Board To Keep Daughter's Killer Behind Bars

The family of Kim Montelaro provide video testimony to the parole board against her killer's release.

Tony Montelaro, the father of Kim Montelaro, testified Wednesday to the state Parole Board in an effort to keep his daughter's killer behind bars.

Montelaro was pleased with how well the video conferencing went and said that he felt a great deal of compassion and empathy from the parole board as he told them about Kim, said Lisa Yakomin, chief of staff to Assemblyman Robert Schroeder.

Montelaro told Yakomin there was a new member of the parole board who was unfamiliar with Kim’s story. This, he said, gave him an opportunity to talk about Kim in great detail.

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Christopher Righetti, who raped and murdered 20-year old New Milford woman after kidnapping her in Paramus in 1976, is up for parole for the fifth time since 1976.

"Tony expressed great relief that his latest victim impact statement is behind him now," Yakomin said. "He hopes the board will order Righetti to serve out the rest of his sentence. If not, he urged them to set a future parole eligibility date for no sooner than 35 years from now."

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Righetti's parole hearing was the result of two bills that were signed during the N.J. legislatures lame-duck session under Gov. Jon Corzine.

The bills mandated that inmates who have been denied parole receive a new parole hearing every three years. The bills, A4201 and A4202, called for a panel to review prisoners who had served 20 years or more on their sentences.

The bills were repealed but Righetti "fell between the cracks," meaning that anyone who was eligible during the time the bills were signed into law and subsequently repealed are grandfathered in. In previous hearings before the parole board, the Montelaros have had to travel from their home in Florida to press the state to keep Righetti locked away.

On Wednesday, Tony Montelaro was able to give his testimony via video conference.

Montelaro told Patch in March, "He should have been executed when this happened, when he murdered our daughter."

"He'll do it again. ... He's already taken our daughter's life and now we've got to relive that every time that son of a bitch comes up for parole." 

In an earlier interview with Patch, Washington Township Police Chief Randy Ciocco said, Montelaro's "death resonated throughout just about every community in Bergen County." 

 Chief Frank Papapietro remembered how the random brutality surrounding her death affected entire communities.

, asked the community to sign an on-line petition sponsored by Representative Robert Schroeder and his group, Keep N.J. Safe, to speak on Montelaro's behalf and at the same time "lend our voices to the thousands of women who have been victimized, but have not come forward."

Righetti, who was a 16-year-old, 200 pound teenager from River Vale when he killed Montelaro, had served 13 months in a state juvenile correctional facility for rape, and shortly upon his release had attempted to rape another woman before killing Montelaro.

He kidnapped the 20-year-old college student from the on Aug. 31, 1976, and then raped and stabbed her to death in a secluded area of the Pine Lake Swim Club in Washington Township.

Montelaro's father, Tony, testified through a video connection to the parole board in Trenton from a Florida prosecutor's office this morning. The Montelaros and their supporters are asking that Righetti not receive another parole hearing for at least 35 years.

Yakomin reported that the parole board hoped to render a decision by the end of May. 

"A decision must be reached by June 21st," she said.  


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