RUN FOR HONOR - Bill Mahoney, Antoinette
Douglas, Renee Moncion and Betty Fenner run in the Parole
Memorial Relay. - Photo by Minerva Osorio
Auto
crash kills parole officer while coworkers run to pay for
Parole Memorial
The accidental death of a parole officer on the job added special poignancy to the efforts of 30 PEF members at the state Division of Parole who were running last month in their second annual 165-mile relay from Manhattan to Albany.
The event raises money to pay for a memorial to parole officers who die in the line of duty.
Parole officer Sharyn DeBose-Dover was killed in an automobile accident during the first day of the two-day relay.
Previously, four parole officers had lost their lives on duty since 1976. DeBose-Dover's death increases that number to five. She was killed on the Taconic State Parkway while traveling to a parole officer's training session.
Parole officer Barbara Sherrod, a passenger in the car, sustained serious, but not life-threatening, injuries as a result of the accident.
DeBose-Dover joined the Division of Parole in 1983, and was most recently assigned to Work Release II out of Fulton Correctional Facility in the Bronx.
In a tragically ironic twist, the accident occurred at 11 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 13, the approximate time participants in the memorial relay were passing through the nearby region of Dobbs Ferry heading toward Ossining.
Participants ran separate legs of five and 10 miles each for more than 32 continuous hours, starting at 7:30 a.m. from the Manhattan Division of Parole Headquarters, at West 40th Street. The towns along the relay route provided police escorts for the runners.
Thirty-two hours later, the last members of the relay team arrived at 1 p.m. on Oct.14 at the corner of Swan Street and Madison Avenue in downtown Albany, the future site of the Parole Officers' Memorial.
"The work of a parole officer is difficult. You face the very real threat of being physically assaulted or even killed on a day-to-day basis. It seems only right that we erect some kind of a memorial to those parole officers who have given their lives in the line of duty. And that we continue to honor them," said parole officer Yvonne Samuel, a PEF member and 14-year parole veteran who has helped organized the event for the past two years.
Samuel and parole officer Willis Toms, PEF Division 236 council leader, thanked all the runners and those who contributed to the fund-raiser. More than $1,000 was collected, boosting the total amount now in hand for the memorial to $3,500.
Donations for the memorial may be made to the NYS Parole Officers' Memorial Fund, attention: Parole Officer Samuel, 314 W. 40th Street, NY, NY 10018.