Woodstock town maintenance worker Michael Innello was only back on the job his second day before accusations of parole violations surfaced.
A concerned parent contacted Supervisor Bill McKenna after seeing Innello, a Level 3 sex offender, operating a weed trimmer on the small grassy area at the foot of the bridge that takes Route 375 over the Millstream. That area is within 1000 feet of Woodstock Elementary School and is off limits due to Innello’s convictions. The parent claimed he was near children at the time.
McKenna said Innello is in full compliance with his parole conditions, which include no contact with minors. Veronica Ahumada, Innello’s parole officer, said in an email to McKenna that his parole conditions only bar him from living 1000 feet from a school. After complaints about Innello being near minors while helping get the town pool ready for summer camp in late July, she added a new condition that he is not to be around children unsupervised.
But the August 14 incident appears to violate the state Sexual Assault Reform Act (SARA), adopted in 2001, which requires additional conditions be placed on parolees.
The parole board “shall require, as a mandatory condition of such release, that such sentenced offender shall refrain from knowingly entering into or upon any school grounds…”
School grounds are defined by state Penal Law as “any area accessible to the public located within 1000 feet of the real property boundary line of a public or private elementary, parochial, intermediate, junior high, vocational, or high school.”
After the July pool incident, Woodstock Police Chief Clayton Keefe, echoing public concern, requested Ahumada violate Innello’s parole and direct him to quit his job.
Keefe did not respond to a request for comment.
“I told [Keefe] I could only suggest he look for other employment,” Ahumada said in the email to McKenna.
“At this point I’m getting harassed with so many calls from individuals claiming he is a level three sex offender, however no one can provide proof he has broken the law,” she wrote on July 31.
“I supervise Michael and he is in compliance with his parole supervision; no positive drug tests, home for curfew, reports as directed, and has been polygraphed recently.”
Innello returned to work August 13, nine days after town council members Anula Courtis and Bennet Ratcliff hand-delivered the civil service change form to the Ulster County Personnel Department to get him removed from the town roster.
On August 8, without the town board’s knowledge, McKenna cited a CWA union grievance in requesting the Personnel Department reinstate Innello retroactively to August 5. That paperwork was completed August 13. McKenna said a July 22 resolution to terminate Innello was illegal as was the action to remove him from the roster. McKenna said Innello’s past is not a valid reason for termination because only performance and conduct can be cited. McKenna has called Innello an “exemplary employee.”
The town board majority has fought to have Innello removed because McKenna did not disclose his past or sex offender status when recommending him for hire.
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