Kozlowski to Appeal Parole Board's 'Faulty Reasoning'

Former Tyco (NYSE:TYC) chief executive Dennis Kozlowski, denied parole earlier this month in his first bid for freedom, is fighting back.

Kozlowski’s attorney, Alan Lewis, says he will appeal the parole board’s decision and challenge its “faulty reasoning.” In denying Kozlowski parole, the board cited “concern for the public safety and welfare.”

“Dennis is a perfect candidate for parole, given his unblemished record over almost seven years of incarceration,” Lewis said.  “The idea that his release would jeopardize public safety is utter nonsense. And the notion that Dennis’s release would somehow undermine respect for the law itself lacks respect for the contrary and well informed view of the trial judge, whose vast knowledge of the case was the product of presiding over 11 months of trial testimony.”

Indeed, judge Michael Obus, who presided over Kozlowski’s trial on charges he stole $600 million from Tyco, said prior to the board’s decision that granting parole would not be “inconsistent with the Court’s intentions when the indeterminate sentence was imposed.”

Kozlowski was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to 8 to 25 ½ years in prison. He was transferred to a minimum-security facility earlier this year.