Judith Clark: The Brink’s Robbery, Prison, and Parole

Judith Clark drove the getaway car in the 1981 Brink’s armored truck robbery in Nanuet, New York, a heist that left a Brink’s guard and two Nyack police officers dead. She was 31, a former member of the Weather Underground and the May 19th Communist Organization, and a new mother with an infant daughter. Sentenced to 75 years to life, she served nearly 38 years at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted her sentence in 2016 and a parole board granted her release in 2019.¹

What Happened at the Nanuet Mall

On October 20, 1981, a group of roughly ten people attempted to rob a Brink’s armored truck at the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, New York. They took $1.6 million. Clark was behind the wheel of the getaway car.²³

Three men were killed:

Peter Paige, a Brink’s guard of 25 years and father of three, shot at the mall during the initial heist.⁴
Waverly “Chipper” Brown, a Nyack police officer, killed less than an hour later in an ambush at a Route 59 roadblock.⁵
Edward O’Grady, a Nyack police sergeant and Vietnam veteran, father of three, the youngest just six months old, killed alongside Brown at the roadblock.⁴

A fourth Brink’s guard, Joseph Trombino, was wounded but survived. He continued working for Brink’s for two more decades and was killed in the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.⁵

The group characterized the robbery as an “expropriation” meant to fund the “Republic of New Afrika.” Clark’s co-defendants included Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, both former Weather Underground members, and Kuwasi Balagoon, a former Black Panther. Mutulu Shakur, a Black Liberation Army leader, was later convicted as the operation’s ringleader.²

Who Clark Was Before the Robbery

Clark grew up in a Communist household. Her father, Joseph Clark, was foreign editor of The Daily Worker before later writing for Dissent.⁶ Around 1969, as a student at the University of Chicago, she was expelled after involvement in left-wing protests.⁷

She spent roughly seven years in the Weather Underground and later joined the May 19th Communist Organization, a splinter group allied with the Black Liberation Army.¹ The alliance between the two groups, known as “The Family,” carried out bank robberies and helped orchestrate the prison escape of Assata Shakur. At the time, Clark held that anything short of total commitment to the revolutionary cause amounted to betrayal.⁶

The Trial That Produced a 75-Year Sentence

Clark’s conduct at trial largely dictated the sentence she received. After her arrest, she identified herself as a “freedom fighter” and refused to recognize the court’s authority, calling it “imperialist.”³ At a June 1983 pretrial conference, she was permitted to represent herself after telling the court that “as a freedom fighter I am the only one who can speak for myself and I can definitely not be represented by an officer of the court.”⁸

Clark and co-defendants Gilbert and Balagoon frequently absented themselves from the courtroom, listening through a speaker in their holding cells. Clark called the trial a “charade” and described the robbery as an “attempted expropriation” by “revolutionary forces.” Her ten-page summation asserted that the court was a “tool of imperialist rule.” She declared, “Revolutionary violence is necessary, and it is a liberating force.”⁸³

The contrast with Kathy Boudin is telling. Boudin negotiated a plea deal and became parole-eligible in 2001. Clark, refusing to negotiate, received 75 years to life from Judge David Ritter of the Orange County Court, a sentence that would not have made her parole-eligible until 2056.⁹ She entered Bedford Hills on October 6, 1983, and filed no direct appeal.⁸

What Changed Inside Bedford Hills

Over three and a half decades, Clark abandoned the revolutionary ideology that had defined her trial. Supporters, prison officials, and eventually a state judge called it a “remarkable transformation.” She took public responsibility for the crime and expressed remorse for the victims, including the nine children left fatherless.⁶

She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology.¹⁰ She started an AIDS counseling and education program for prisoners that was later replicated at facilities across the country. She helped build a college program inside the prison, helped manage the infant care center for incarcerated mothers, became a certified chaplain, and mentored hundreds of women.¹¹ She also trained more than a dozen service dogs for wounded veterans and law enforcement.¹²

Former Bedford Hills superintendent Elaine Lord described her as an “elder stateswoman of the facility.”¹⁰ Clark attributed much of her personal change to building a relationship with her daughter Harriet, who had been 11 months old at the time of the robbery.¹³

Commutation and Parole

On December 30, 2016, Governor Andrew Cuomo commuted Clark’s sentence from 75 years to life to 35 years to life, citing her “long sentence” and “exceptional strides in self-development.” The commutation left her murder and robbery convictions intact but made her immediately eligible for parole.¹⁴

At her first parole hearing in 2017, the board denied release, calling her a “symbol of violent terroristic crime.”¹ Her legal team challenged the denial. In April 2018, State Supreme Court Justice John Kelley ruled that the parole panel had “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” by giving improper weight to the nature of the crime, a factor that “can never be changed,” while failing to adequately consider her rehabilitation. Kelley found she had “undergone a remarkable transformation” and had “taken responsibility for her actions, expressed remorse, and tried to improve the lives of her fellow prisoners.” He ordered a new hearing.¹⁵

At the new hearing on April 3, 2019, Clark’s team submitted a four-volume parole packet with statements of support from more than 2,000 people, including former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, 13 former presidents of the New York City Bar, four former parole commissioners, over 70 New York elected officials, and 150 faith leaders.¹¹ Norma Hill, a victim of the robbery who had testified against Clark at trial, supported release, saying Clark had “constantly expressed her remorse to me” and “tried to make peace without ever forgetting her participation.”¹⁶

On April 17, 2019, the board granted release by a 2-1 vote. Board member William Smith Jr., appointed by former Governor George Pataki, cast the dissenting vote.¹⁷ The board cited her age, the length of time served (over 37 years), her apologies, her disavowal of radical principles, her prison record, her employment plans, and her low risk of reoffending. It told her directly: “You were wrong. Your behavior was criminal. Your callous disregard for the wellbeing of some, in favor of others, is a disgrace. However, this release decision is granted in keeping with applicable factors.”¹⁸

Clark was expected to be released by May 15, 2019, and planned to live with a friend in New York City and work for Hour Children, an organization serving incarcerated women and their children. At release, she was the second-longest-serving incarcerated woman in New York State.¹⁹

Opposition From Victims’ Families and Law Enforcement

The prospect of Clark’s release drew strong opposition. Rockland County Executive Ed Day, who had been in law enforcement at the time of the robbery, said he “strongly believe[d] Clark deserves the same sentence she inflicted on her victims.” The Rockland County District Attorney’s Office called releasing her “an atrocious travesty of justice and an affront to our criminal justice system.”²⁰

Michael Paige, Peter Paige’s son, and Arthur Keenan Jr., a Nyack officer who survived the 1981 attack, later sued in Albany Supreme Court, arguing that parole board member Tana Agostini, who cast the deciding vote, had an undisclosed conflict of interest: she was married to a convicted murderer whose release she had previously worked to secure. The petitioners said the board’s actions “without proper public disclosure on the record of any potential conflicts borders on impropriety.”¹⁷

The Rockland community holds an annual memorial for Paige, Brown, and O’Grady in Central Nyack. Michael Paige told reporters years after the attack, “It hurts every day.”²¹

Where the Co-Defendants Ended Up

Kathy Boudin took a plea deal, served 22 years, and was paroled in 2003. She earned a doctorate at Columbia and co-founded the university’s Center for Justice. She died of cancer on May 1, 2022, at 78.²²
David Gilbert represented himself, as Clark had, and received the same 75-to-life sentence. Cuomo commuted his sentence on August 23, 2021, hours before leaving office. Gilbert was granted parole on October 26, 2021, and released on November 4, 2021, after 40 years.²³
Mutulu Shakur, convicted as the ringleader, served nearly 37 years in federal prison. He was paroled while suffering from advanced bone marrow cancer and died in July 2023 at 72, about seven months after release.²⁴

What Clark Has Done Since Her Release

Clark serves as Director of the Survivors Justice Project, an advocacy group focused on implementing New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act.²⁵ The law allows courts to weigh a defendant’s history of domestic violence when setting sentences, both for new cases and for resentencing of already-incarcerated people. Clark has stressed that it covers violence by any family or household member, not only intimate partners.²⁶

She has spoken at universities and public events about the law, arguing that the legal system too often examines only a narrow moment and asks whether a defendant committed an act, rather than looking at the abuse and coercion that may have surrounded it.²⁷

1
CBS News. Ex-Weather Underground Radical Judith Clark Granted Parole in Deadly 1981 Brinks Heist
2
The Journal News (lohud.com). Brinks Killer David Gilbert Seeks Clemency From Cuomo After 40 Years
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The New York Times. Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation
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Nyack News and Views. Brinks: Judy Clark
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ABC7 New York. Brinks Robbery: Peter Paige, Waverly Brown, Edward O’Grady
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Hudson Institute. Judith Clark: How Ideology Can Ruin a Life
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Dissent Magazine. The Case of Judith Clark
8
FindLaw. Clark v. Perez
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Palisades Hudson Financial Group. A Cop Killer Gets Her Life Back
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Times Union. Parole for Judith Clark
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Proskauer for Good. Proskauer Pro Bono Client Judith Clark Granted Parole
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NBC New York. Former Radical Activist Granted Parole in Deadly 1981 Armored Truck Heist
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Queens Eagle. Judith Clark – David Weprin Opinion
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The New York Times. Cuomo Commutes Sentence of Judith Clark, Driver in Deadly Brinks Robbery
15
The Journal News (lohud.com). State Weighs Appealing New Parole Hearing for Brinks Killer Judith Clark
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The Journal News (lohud.com). Judith Clark Faces Parole Hearing for Brinks Robbery Murders
17
Courthouse News Service. Parole of Brinks Robbery Figure Spurs Suit by Victims
18
Queens Eagle. Judith Clark Paroled From Prison
19
NYCLU. NYCLU Statement on Parole Granted to Judith Clark
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ABC7 New York. Parole Hearing Set for Judith Clark, Getaway Driver in Brinks Heist
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The Journal News (lohud.com). Brinks Robbery Victims Son: It Hurts Every Day
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Columbia Center for Justice. Kathy Boudin: A Great Life and a Great Loss
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NBC New York. David Gilbert Describes Journey From Activist to Brinks Robbery Role at Parole Hearing
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Democracy Now. Mutulu Shakur, Black Liberation Activist, Dies 7 Months After Release From 37 Years in Prison
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Survivors Justice Project. SJP Team
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Brooklyn Law School. Beyond Survival Screening Features Work of Criminal Defense Advocacy Clinic
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Vassar College. Film Screening and Panel Discussion on Domestic Violence Law Showcase Power of Grassroots Advocacy