Relatives of serial rapist Rodney Stover begged New York prison officials not to release him — showing them a disturbing letter he wrote that said he had “visions of hurting someone else,” The Post has learned.
But their pleas were dismissed, despite a program in place that could have kept him confined indefinitely.
“We all were fearful something else would happen, and it did,” said the sex fiend’s former sister-in-law, Shawn Stover Johnson. “My heart goes out to the victim. Some people cannot be rehabilitated, and he is one of them.”
Johnson said she was stunned that prison officials didn’t act on her warning.
“We sent them copies of our letters,” she said. “The prison told us there was nothing they could do — they had to release him regardless.
Shawn Johnson“He said in one letter to us that, ‘When I get out, I have these visions of hurting someone else, and I don’t know how to fix that,’ ” Johnson, 47, said from her South Carolina home.
Johnson shared the letters with the warden and other officials at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility upstate in 2012 as Stover was wrapping up a 19-year stint for raping a Hamptons mom.
His case could have been referred to state mental-health officials, who would have then had the option to use a forcible-confinement law for violent sex offenders that was passed in 2007.
The program has drawn criticism for its hefty price tag of $175,000 a year. As of October 2013 — the most recent stats available — there were 334 people civilly committed statewide.
But rather than hold Stover, officials sent him to Pennsylvania — which does not have that program — so he could serve two more years for a parole violation.
In another prison letter Johnson shared with The Post, dated April 2, 2014, Stover wrote, “It’s really wild how much hate I have in my heart.”
The men’s shelter where Stover was living when he was accused of raping a woman in a bar’s bathroom. John M. MantelStover was freed from Pennsylvania two months ago and returned to New York, where he was subject to limited monitoring under the state’s sex-offender registry. He only needed to confirm his address with the NYPD every three months.
Last Saturday, Stover allegedly raped a woman in the bathroom of the Turnmill bar in the Flatiron District, three blocks from his shelter near Bellevue Hospital.
State Corrections officials referred questions about Stover to the Office of Mental Health, which is responsible for assessing and recommending civil commitment.
The OMH declined to comment, citing federal confidentiality laws.
