Mom picks prison over parole

Mom picks prison over parole

Published: Thursday, April 06, 2006

By Patricia Doxsey

THE FORMER Hyde Park woman imprisoned for severely beating her 18-month-old son would rather stay in prison than live for the next six months under conditions set by the state Division of Parole.

Jeannie Malak, 54, was to be released Monday from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, where she's been imprisoned since 2001 for the assault on her adopted son, xxxx [name removed for reasons of privacy].

But Malak rejected the terms and conditions established by the Division of Parole for her early release and decided instead to serve out her full 3{-year sentence. That means she'll be released on Oct. 5.

"She will be released under no supervision," said Division of Parole Spokeswoman Carol Weaver. "She will have done her full stint and she will be released."

Weaver declined to say what conditions the agency sought to impose on Malak for an early release.

Malak pleaded guilty in March 2003 to assault, admitting that she beat her son, xxxx [name removed for reasons of privacy], so severely on July 17, 2001, that he was left physically and mentally handicapped.

Malak was sentenced in April 2003 to 3{ years behind bars.

Malak, who at the time of the assault was married to pediatrician Dr. Joseph Malak, never provided any details of the events that injured Joseph Jr., but prosecutors said the child was covered with bruises inconsistent with the mother's claim that he fell down a flight of carpeted stairs in the family's home.

At the time of Mrs. Malak's sentencing, nearly two years after the incident, Joseph Jr. could not walk without assistance, had limited communicative abilities and was mentally retarded.

Joseph Jr. was one of two children the Malaks adopted from Guatemala in 1999 by forging a letter from a doctor Mrs. Malak had been seeing for psychiatric problems, attesting that she was mentally fit to adopt the children.

At the time of her sentencing, Dutchess County Judge Gerald Hayes issued a restraining order to prevent Mrs. Malak from having contact with either of the children.