Exclusive | NY parol officer fired after objecting to release of killer who allegedly vowed to torture, murder her
A former New York State Parole Board commissioner was given the boot after objecting to the release of a convicted killer who allegedly vowed to torture and murder her in a racist tirade after she voted to keep him behind bars, she told The Post.Tyece Drake said she repeatedly warned state officials about threats allegedly made by murderer Matthew Svanberg, 53, before he was granted parole in 2024. Svanberg spent 25 years behind bars for fatally shooting 26-year-old gas station attendant Dennis Folk in the face during a robbery at a Long Island service station in 1993.Svanberg, who was 20 at the time, fled to Las Vegas after the murder and evaded capture for five years until he was nabbed by police and extradited to New York.The inmate flew into a rage when Drake, 53, denied him parole in 2023, according to a letter obtained by The Post a fellow inmate sent to the state Parole Board the following year.“He when (sic) on a racist rant about how he will kill that ‘Black B—h Drake, that F—ing N—-r B—h,’ if he ever gets his change (sic),” according to the letter from an inmate in prison with Svanberg at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County.“‘How dare that f—–g black b—h think that she is above a white man like me,'” the letter said.“‘She is beneath us.
How dare she gets above her station.'”Svanberg said that one day, “He will teach her to respect a white man like him.That when she beg (sic) for her life, he will torture her then kill her,” according to the letter.Svanberg was “extremely angry” at Drake and “he felt that she was emotionally torturing him,” according to the letter.Drake, a mental health professional appointed to the parole board in 2017, said she took her responsibility to protect the public seriously.“He was angry because I asked him so many questions,” said Drake, one of three board members who interviewed Svanberg.
“It’s a murder case.I have to be thorough so that I am sure that ...