Declaring “I’m not a monster,” cop killer Albert Victory yesterday spoke out for the first time about his bitterly criticized parole — insisting he is innocent of killing a rookie NYPD officer 31 years ago.
“I deserve parole. I’m not a monster. I just want to go about living my life. I don’t want any trouble,” the 59-year-old Victory said.
The Post tracked down the released convict to a house at the end of a dirt road in a hamlet near upstate Cooperstown. Outside the home, which he shares with his wife, Susan, there are trees with yellow ribbons reading, “Welcome home, Al.”
Victory insisted he was not guilty of killing Officer John Varecha on Oct. 7, 1968, after the rookie stopped him and buddy Robert Bornholdt in their car for running a traffic light.
The prosecution said that while Victory struggled with Varecha, Bornholdt opened fire, slaying the rookie cop. Bornholdt was subsequently committed to a series of mental institutions.
Victory told The Post: “I am not a cop killer. I’m not the monster I’ve been portrayed as. I did not kill that cop. That was somebody else, some crazy guy that shot him. It wasn’t me. I’m innocent.”
He added: “I spent 28 years in jail for a crime I didn’t do.”
While proclaiming his innocence, Victory had words of consolation for Helen Varecha, the slain cop’s elderly mother.
“I have the utmost sympathy for her. I feel terrible for her. She lost her son. But I didn’t kill him,” he said.
Victory walked out of Attica state prison Tuesday after one parole board voted to release him, a second rescinded the parole, and a judge sided with the first board.
Lawyer Elizabeth Fink, who represents Attica inmates, has offered him a job as a paralegal in his native Brooklyn.
Police Commissioner Howard Safir and Gov. Pataki bitterly attacked the decision. So did retired Detective Irvin Silverman, who arrested both Victory and Bornholdt at different times.
“It’s almost a criminal act to let this guy out,” the celebrated sleuth said. “When he was arrested, he showed no remorse and even badmouthed the officer after he was dead. He has no feelings — like a sociopath.”
The first parole board last Jan. 11 voted to release Victory.
Three days later, James Kindler, chief Manhattan assistant district attorney, wrote the board to oppose Victory’s release “in the strongest possible terms” — noting the cop killer once had escaped for three years.
Court records show that as a result of Kindler’s letter, the second parole board reversed the decision, saying it had not been aware of the escape.
But acting Supreme Court Justice Mark Dadd said the escape could not be used as a reason to rescind the parole at that point because Victory’s files were full of references to the escape.