The job of parole officer requires a deep understanding and interest in one’s charges.  This interest can go too deep, as alleged against 50 year old Albany P.O. Nicholas Kordas.  From the Albany Times Union :

An Albany-based parole officer is under investigation for allegations he handcuffed and raped a 24-year-old parolee during a visit to her residence in January, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, court records show.

The woman accusing Kordas of rape served five years in state prison for first-degree assault before being paroled in 2008.

Police records show she went to Albany Medical Center Hospital with her mother immediately after the encounter with Kordas.

This opens the door to many questions and possibilities.  Given that Kordas is 50 years old, it’s a little hard to imagine that he’s suddenly decided to use his authority and entree as a parole officer to commence a life of rape.  Still, it could happen.  Or they could have had consensual sex, and the parolee, having learned the ways of the world while in state custody, is using it to manipulate the situation.  But being on parole generally doesn’t demand a whole lot in the manipulation department.  Or it’s a lie, but the DNA test will show the problem there right quick.  Or it did happen.

Until the DNA test is completed, we won’t know whether there’s anything here at all.  Even after the test is completed, it doesn’t prove that it’s rape rather than consensual sex, still wrong but certainly a different wrong.  What this points to is the vulnerability inherent in the relationship between parole officer and parolee.

A parole officer has the authority, and the responsibility, to have essentially total access to the parolee.  His duty is to make sure that she’s not engaging in crime or otherwise violating the terms of her release.  She has no privacy from him, no right to be free from his searches.  Certainly, this provides ample opportunity for a parole officer inclined to engage in rape to do so.

But the duty also provides an opportunity for the parolee to allege wrongdoing as well.  It would hardly seem surprising that the DNA test of the woman, whose name is being withheld based on the nature of the allegations, will prove positive.  One would surmise that she wouldn’t make an allegation like this, and go immediately to the hospital for testing, if the test wasn’t going to bear her out.

As a person under supervision, a female parolee must be protected from the sexual advances of a parole officer.  But doing so would undermine the male parole officer’s ability to do his job.  One possible answer would be to have only female parole officers supervise female parolees, though even that isn’t an ironclad guarantee that nothing bad will happen.

And then, parolees aren’t necessarily the most honest of sources for accusations.

One point that seems abundantly clear is that no one in a position of supervision over another has any business whatsoever engaging in sexual relations under any circumstances.  Even if they are “in love,” there must be a wall separating them until such time as the parolee has completed supervision, so that there is no suggestion that the relationship is the product of coercion or undue influence.  The potential for impropriety is simply too great, and they can keep their pants zipped until parole is over. It won’t kill anyone.

What a nightmare.

Update:  Via News10 Albany :

Police say 50-year old Nicholas Kordas allegedly raped the 23-year old parolee while conducting a curfew check at her home in Guilderland back in January.

Kordas was arraigned at Guilderland Town Court and released on $75,000.

An investigation revealed no other victims, but the State Division of Parole says they have taken immediate action to assure the safety of all the parolees Kordas supervised.

Guess that clears up the DNA issue.  As Kordas claimed it never happened, it appears he’s sunk himself. 

H/T David Giacalone