Man denies guilt in area burglaries
Toolbox
By Susan Smallheer STAFF WRITER - Published: December 2, 2009
BRATTLEBORO – A Brattleboro man, who has already spent six of his 23 years in prison, now could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on more than 25 charges related to about a dozen burglaries in southern Windham County.
John "Jack" J. Parda, 23, pleaded innocent Tuesday to 25 charges that he burglarized homes and a few businesses in Brattleboro, Vernon, Guilford, Dummerston, Marlboro and Townshend, and stole cars, jewelry, coins, televisions, computers, computer games, electronics and cash.
A friend of his, Kenneth Watkins, 32, also of Brattleboro, pleaded innocent to two related burglaries.
Police said Parda is a suspect in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts after a rash of burglaries began last spring in the tri-state area.
District Judge Karen Carroll ordered Parda held for lack of $100,000 cash bail, and his co-defendant, Watkins, for lack of $50,000.
Carroll noted that Parda was already being held for lack of bail on the earlier burglary charges. Parda's father, Frank Parda, and uncle, Joe, are well known in the Brattleboro area for their convictions in a notorious murder case in the late 1970s.
Parda's court-appointed lawyer, Margot Stone of Brattleboro, asked the judge to lower the state-requested bail amount to $50,000, while pointing out that her client was already in jail without the right to bail.
Stone said a quick look at the police affidavits in the case revealed what she said was a lack of admissible evidence linking Parda to the rash of home burglaries in the towns in the late summer and early fall. Parda was arrested in late September and has been held at the Springfield state prison since his arrest.
Carroll ordered Parda to have no contact with Watkins, his co-defendant, but it came out in court that the two men were either cellmates at the Springfield prison, or lived in the same block.
The judge noted that she couldn't control where the state held individual inmates, but she made her wishes clear that she thought the two men shouldn't be together.
Windham County Deputy State's Attorney Steven Brown said that he would talk to the Department of Corrections and try to have the two alleged burglars separated and held in separate prisons.
At least three of the pair's victims were in the courthouse Tuesday, saying they hoped to recover some of their stolen belongings. Their burglaries were only days apart in neighboring towns.
According to court records, in addition to stealing everything from sterling silver flatware to Apple iPods, the burglars caused a lot of damage breaking into the homes, most of which were locked.
According to affidavits filed in the Parda case, several other Brattleboro men are believed to be involved in the string of burglaries, with some acting as lookouts or drivers for Parda, and others being active participants.
Watkins is charged with breaking into a downtown Brattleboro hair salon, Ultimate Impressions, where his former girlfriend worked, as well as a home on Quails Hill Road in Brattleboro. Both incidents occurred on Sept. 21.
Brown declined to discuss a possible motive in the rash of burglaries, but he noted that a lot of the items taken in the various burglaries were being recovered from area pawn shops or Parda's apartment on Green Street in Brattleboro.
Police recovered a total of 61 items from a dump near a home on Route 5 in Guilford, court records stated. All those items came from various Vernon burglaries.
Brown gave no estimate of the value of the items taken in the various burglaries.
susan.smallheer@rutland herald.com
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