By Sophia Chang
NEWSDAY
NEW YORK — Though he recently turned 89, the prospect of Charles Friedgood’s freedom is “incompatible with the welfare of society,” a state board said this week in denying parole to New York’s oldest inmate.
The former Great Neck heart surgeon, who was convicted in 1976 of killing his wife, Sophie, with a lethal overdose of the painkiller Demerol, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for murder.
Friedgood was arrested at Kennedy Airport when he tried to join his Scandinavian paramour with more than $450,000 in cash, securities and jewelry from his wife’s estate. He was also convicted of grand larceny.
While a transcript of the parole board hearing on Tuesday was not immediately available, the decision told Friedgood that the parole board considered “your age, health and hardship as well as your positive contributions while incarcerated, which includes helping save two lives and teaching.”
The details of Friedgood’s behavior while imprisoned at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in upstate New York were unavailable yesterday.
Ultimately, the parole board decided that Friedgood demonstrated a “reasonable probability” that he would break the law again if released on parole.
“It is very clear you continue to attempt to manipulate the board with ambiguous, carefully crafted and evasive answers,” the decision said.
The ruling is Friedgood’s fourth parole denial.
That Friedgood appeared in front of the parole board came as a surprise to his attorney, John Queenan of Albany, who is appealing his client’s last parole denial in 2006. Queenan was arguing Friedgood’s case in appellate court on the same day the parole board met with Friedgood.
"[The current parole denial] does have an impact, I would think,” on the appeal of the previous denial, Queenan said.
Efforts to reach Friedgood’s children, several of whom have testified on his behalf in previous parole board appearances, were unsuccessful. Friedgood is next eligible for parole in March 2009, six months before his 91st birthday.
Copyright 2007 Newsday