THUGS SET FREE TO STRIKE AGAIN

Thousands of ex-cons are allowed to roam the city's streets after
committing parole violations, many of them ending up back behind bars only
after going on violent new crime sprees, a Post probe has found.

In the past few months alone, dozens of paroled thugs, including killers,
sex offenders and armed robbers, have terrorized people in their homes, on
subways and on the street, when they should have been sent back to prison
for violating parole.

If these repeat offenders had been routinely jailed for their parole
violations, countless New Yorkers would not have ended up crime victims.

A Post examination of court and police records unearthed chilling examples
of criminals, many with long rap sheets, who broke parole by using drugs,
fare-jumping or committing other so-called low-level crimes, but who
remained free until they finally were re-arrested for vicious felonies.

For example:

* Frederick Monroe, a hulking parolee with a two-decade-long arrest record,
was charged last Nov. 24 with committing a rash of elevator and apartment
attacks on women, raping or torturing several of them.

His alleged victims included a 13-year-old Queens girl who was sodomized,
and a Manhattan schoolteacher who was knocked unconscious and who suffered
a broken jaw and a busted nose, and nearly had her ears torn off.

Police believe Monroe dragged the schoolteacher around her apartment by her
ears as he ransacked her apartment looking for money and jewelry.

The alleged crime spree could have been avoided if he had been sent back to
jail earlier when he was caught breaking parole by using drugs and
violating orders of protection.

* Darnell Gripper, a career criminal with two stints in state prison under
his belt, was arrested and convicted of pulling a robbery while on parole.
He was back on the street after spending only 60 days in a drug-treatment
program.

That gave him a chance to strike again, police said.

Gripper was arrested last Sept. 29 for a string of subway robberies in
which he is accused of wielding a razor blade and threatening to "kill" or
"slice" up female straphangers.

* Lerun Nightingale, an ex-convict in a special "high risk" parole program
designed to immediately return "the bad of the bad" to prison for any
violation, was given a "free pass" after a disorderly conduct arrest.

Left on the street, the 6-foot-1, 220-pounder allegedly invaded a Manhattan
furniture store brandishing a large kitchen knife and terrorized and robbed
several women.

Minutes later, he used a cellular phone he stole from one of his victims to
call his parole officer to break an appointment, police said.

Detectives said Nightingale couldn't make it because he was busy taking his
victims' bank card to ATMs to empty their accounts.

"It's inconceivable [Nightingale] was allowed to remain out," said an
outraged parole official. "He was in our 'fail safe' system . . . and our
system failed."

A spokesman for the state Division of Parole attributed the disturbing
problem to "judgment calls made in good faith" that are clearly
questionable in hindsight.

"Parole [officers] may be mandated to let them out," said one NYPD
official, "but they are not mandated to let them stay out."

Another police official added: "It is one thing to let someone out of jail
early and say, 'We are doing you a favor, and, if you are a good boy, you
can stay out,' but when they don't behave, why the hell shouldn't they be
sent back to prison?"

A spokesman for Gov. Pataki said "these outrageous acts" committed by
parole-violating ex-cons "are further proof that the governor's proposal to
end parole for all felons should become law now."

The Post contacted the victims of several of these marauding parolees. Only
one was willing to discuss the attacks. The others explained that they were
too frightened, or didn't want to relive the horror.

The schoolteacher, who is still recovering from her injuries, was so
traumatized that she has moved.

The only victim willing to speak out described briefly and angrily how she
felt about being threatened on the subway by a razor-wielding holdup man
identified by police as Gripper.

"All I can say is, I was never so frightened in my life," she said, her
voice choked with tears.

"How does anyone like this get on the street? How does anyone justify
leaving him there once he shows he's incapable of behaving?" she asked.
"Maybe the parole people or their families should become victims. Then
they'd think differently."

According to state officials, the state prison population recently dropped
for the first time in 27 years.

The Pataki administration attributes the drop to new policies granting
early release to larger numbers of nonviolent felons, which has left about
2,000 prison slots open.

These empty cells could easily be filled by parolees who violate the terms
of their release, cops and prosecutors told The Post.

State figures show that, last year alone, about 1,200 parole violators
never spent a single night off the streets. Another 3,600 received no more
than 90 days in a state detox facility before being freed again.

Law-enforcement officials see a clear connection between parole violators
and those who commit new crimes.

And the statistics prove the point.

In 1994, for example, 10,289 parolees were returned to prison: 4,439 after
committing new felonies, and 5,849 for serious technical violations of
their parole.

Last year, as parole officials got tougher on violators, 11,897 were
returned to prison: 9,243 for violations and only 2,634 for new crimes.

But officials could not say what percentage of the returnees had one or
more parole offenses on their records before committing the violation that
landed them back in prison.

Many law-enforcement officials believe an even tougher crackdown on parole
violators would further reduce crime.

Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik recently expanded the NYPD's warrants
squad and has set up a new task force with the state Division of Parole to
hunt down the thousands of parolees wanted for crimes and parole violations.

But law-enforcement officials say that isn't enough.

They say the state should adopt the federal government's no-nonsense policy
when it comes to parolees.

Several pointed to the recent case of convicted Mafia boss Sonny Franzese,
who had been paroled from federal prison.

He was spotted in an Italian restaurant on Long Island, having pasta with
an old friend who is a reputed member of organized crime.

Franzese was sent back to prison, no questions asked, for hanging out with
an "unsavory character," a parole violation.