The parole board agreed he was rehabilitated
By PAUL PINKHAM
Florida Times-Union
TALLAHASSEE — A former Callahan man who was recaptured 32 years after escaping from prison after a bad-check conviction got the earliest possible release date Wednesday from the Florida Parole Commission.
The panel acknowledged Russell Trawick’s crime-free life since he left Florida, noting his successful career and community service. They also heard moving testimony from Trawick’s parents before setting a tentative release date of Oct. 12.
“That is the best possible outcome,” commission Chairman Frederick Dunphy said.
Trawick, 53, was first speechless, then overcome with joy after his lawyer told him the good news in prison. Florida inmates don’t attend their parole hearings.
“He was very thankful that he’s going to be reunited with his wife,” Jacksonville attorney James Davis said. “He said, ‘I finally have something to look forward to.’ ”
Trawick walked out of the East Palatka Road Camp on Christmas 1975. He was 11 months into a 10-year sentence for stealing three $50 money orders from his employer in Nassau County, money he used to get his car fixed.
It’s a crime that would be dropped today after prosecutors collected restitution, Davis told parole commissioners.
Trawick took the name John Stover, married in 1977 and moved to Indiana. He started an electronics business, earned an emergency management certificate and raised two daughters.
The family moved to Michigan, then Washington before settling in 2004 in Missouri, where they opened a rescue shelter for abused llamas. Florida Department of Corrections investigators found him there in November.
Clarice and Russell Trawick Sr. of Callahan told commissioners those 32 years proved their son isn’t a threat to society or a risk to re-offend.
“He has done something for himself that a jail term could not do, and that is rehabilitate himself,” Clarice Trawick said. “He has lived the last 30 years as a model citizen.”
Commissioners agreed and said they would have set the release date sooner but for a state law that requires them to give the sentencing judge 30 days’ notice before paroling someone.
Trawick’s sentencing judge is long deceased, so notice will be given to Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran, who called his sentence excessive.
“I think they should set him free as soon as possible,” Moran said. “I’m just embarrassed that something like that could occur in this circuit.”
Once Moran signs off, Parole Commission staff will re-interview Trawick and must approve his plan for where he will live and work when he gets out.
Trawick hopes to return to Missouri to care for his cancer-stricken wife, but parole officials told his family that could complicate his release because Missouri officials would then have to sign off on it, too. Davis said he probably will recommend that Trawick accept parole in Florida, then request permission from Florida prison officials to travel to Missouri.
Trawick also is seeking clemency, but a spokeswoman for the Parole Commission, which handles such requests, said she couldn’t discuss it.
Copyright 2008 The Florida Times-Union