She’s His Rock. His Parole Officer Won’t Let Him See Her.
He needs, he needs mental help, because the reason
that he continues to relapse is because he can’t get past a lot of things that have happened to him.”
When Mr. Brantley began to falter, the ideal person for Ms. Eaton to call would
have been his parole officer, who could have found him the help he needed.
The parole board even told Mr. Brantley that Ms. Eaton would not be listed as a victim.
To Officer Pawlich, seeing Mr. Brantley and Ms. Eaton embrace in the parole office lobby was a final straw that pushed him from tough love to fury.
Though the state’s parole system subsequently underwent a full overhaul, the specter of the Cheshire
murders still haunts decisions like whether to allow Mr. Brantley to live with Ms. Eaton.
At the initial parole violation hearing, Ms. Eaton played down what she had told the police, saying she backed into the wall on her own
and that Mr. Brantley had kicked her foot accidentally.
“Anybody who loves him or cares about him or has wanted to see him do better has been a victim to his addiction.”
In the couple’s view, Ms. Eaton was the best person Mr. Brantley could have in his life: She does not use drugs.
Even in Connecticut, which has come to be seen as a model, parolees face obstacles
that can seem blind to individual circumstances — Mr. Brantley, for example, could be forbidden to see Ms. Eaton until May 2019.
