Hamilton murderer living full-time in community
Parole Board of Canada grants 77-year-old an ‘expanded medical leave’ from Sudbury halfway house to protect him from COVID-19
COVID-19 has given triple killer Jon Rallo what he has wanted for years — the ability to live full-time in the community.
The aging and reportedly ill federal offender — who murdered his wife and small children — has been granted an “expanded medical leave” from his Sudbury halfway house to protect him from coronavirus. The Parole Board of Canada (PBC) decided Tuesday that for the next 90 days Rallo, 77, can live full-time in the home he shares with his girlfriend.
The request was made by Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Rallo did not submit any documents to the PBC.
Until recently, Rallo was living with his longtime girlfriend for five days a week, spending the other two in his halfway house.
When asked how many other offenders have been moved out of halfway houses and into the community because of the pandemic, the PBC said it is “not in a position to report on the number of cases specific to COVID-19.”
Rallo was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder. In1976, he killed his wife Sandra and their children Jason, 6, and Stephanie, 5, in their Hamilton Mountain bungalow. Sandra and Stephanie’s bodies were soon found in area waterways. Jason has never been found.
At every parole board hearing, Sandra’s sister, Janice Orovan, has begged Rallo to reveal where Jason’s body is.
This month, she wrote to the board asking it not to approve Rallo’s COVID-19 medical pass.
“He is a triple murderer who savagely killed my family. What is more detestable is that he now wants special consideration. He never showed any consideration or compassion when he killed my family.”
The spread of COVID-19 in halfway houses is a concern for offenders, staff and possibly the community at large. Like long-term care homes where the virus has been most fatal, halfway houses are shared living quarters where many residents are older and in ill health.
On its website, the PBC lists policy changes due to COVID-19, including that it is “working with CSC to better accommodate the circumstances of offenders during the pandemic, such as to change a residency requirement from a community-based residential facility to a home or family environment where such placement is risk-appropriate.”
Every year or two since 2008 when he was first released on day parole, Rallo has asked the PBC for full parole. Each time he has been denied. Despite his nearly spotless institutional record, hundreds of volunteer hours and being deemed at low risk of reoffending, board members have denied him his freedom for one reason: his “denial stance.” Rallo has never admitted his guilt. Without that, parole board members say they cannot understand why he killed his family. Therefore, they cannot take steps to control his “triggers” that may cause him to hurt someone again.
They denied him full parole as recently as September.
Nothing about Rallo has significantly changed since then. But now there is a pandemic.
Now the life of a killer is being protected.
Parole board documents say Rallo, who has been hospitalized several times in recent years, has already had a 30-day leave to “quarantine in accordance with medical recommendations.”
“You have a number of well documented health conditions, in addition to your advancing age,” the PBC’s decision says. “You are therefore more vulnerable than others to experience complications due to COVID-19. However, the board is not granting expanded medical leave solely due to your increased vulnerability. Rather, it weights this vulnerability in the context of your risk to re-offend. Public safety remains paramount.”
Normally, Rallo must meet with his parole officer once a month. During this medical leave, that has doubled.
Previous conditions to report all relationships with women to his parole officer and to have no contact with Sandra’s family remain in place.
The PBC no longer requires Rallo to have psychological counselling.
So, for now, Rallo is living his best life. And it opens the possibility that when the pandemic is over, the PBC will look back at his months of freedom and decide — despite no confession, or remorse, or disclosure of his son’s resting place — to make it permanent.