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Bobby Dellelo, now 64, was charged with first-degree murder after his partner in a 1963 jewelry store heist shot and killed Detective George Holmes on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing. The shooter, Nicholas Yasaian, killed himself days after the assault. Dellelo served 40 years before being released from MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole in November 2003.

Robert Kenney, president of the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society, said yesterday that Dellelo is in no position to advocate for reform.

''I think it's a little disgusting," he said in a telephone interview. ''I think it's shocking we're supposed to feel sorry for a guy who killed a police officer. . . . There is no reason for him to be walking the streets."

Yesterday, Dellelo was among the overhaul advocates that included other former offenders as well as politicians such as Councilor Chuck Turner, Councilor at Large Sam Yoon, state Representative Gloria Fox, and US Representative Major Owens of New York.

Rally organizers saw Dellelo, a Revere man struggling to find work, as an ideal representative for their movement, and offered his story as an example of why the Criminal Offender Record Information system should be overhauled. CORI reform advocates contend that some information on criminal backgrounds should be shielded to prevent discrimination against former offenders.

''Think about all the wrong and shameful things you've done over the course of 40 years," said Jackie Lageson of the Massachusetts Alliance to Reform CORI. ''Now imagine that every time you go for a job, you have to disclose it to everyone no matter how ashamed and sorry you feel.

''The reality is that Bobby isn't the only murderer who is out on the streets trying to make a living," Lageson said. ''You tell me, what do we do with them? Deny them access to jobs?"

The clash underscored the tension in the debate to overhaul the CORI system, which was originally established in 1972 to allow law enforcement officials to check criminal records. The system restricted the public's access to the records, but over the years, the limits were relaxed. Now, employers, landlords, and media can see them, and critics contend that such access has kept many former convicts from making a fresh start.

Opponents of changing CORI, such as the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, however, argue that employers have the right to know applicants' backgrounds to determine whether a potential worker poses a threat.

Someone like Dellelo, who escaped from prison three times, should not get a clean slate, said Robert Faherty, retired superintendent of the Boston Police Department. He knew Holmes when they were patrolmen in Roxbury.

Dellelo ''wants a second chance? Georgie never got a second chance," Faherty said in a telephone interview. ''He never got a chance to be with his wife and kids one more day."

During the rally, Dellelo, who wants to become a paralegal, pointed toward Washington Street, where the crime took place, and defended himself.

''My partner, he committed suicide," Dellelo said. ''So there was me. . . . No one can ignore that a cop got killed, and yes, I was involved in the robbery. I'm stuck with that for the rest of my life."

At about noon on Nov. 6, 1963, Dellelo and his partner, Yasaian, tried to rob A. Koppelman and Sons jewelry store on Washington Street, according to court transcripts and newspaper accounts. Carrying loaded guns, their faces covered with nylon stockings, the men charged into the store and told about 15 people, including a young child, to stay put. Someone tripped the alarm, forcing the men to flee. They split up and went in opposite directions. Dellelo ran toward Winter Street, pointing his gun at the crowd to force them out of the way, and pushed his way into a cab, where police caught up with him.

Yasaian ran the other way and straight into Holmes, who was off-duty and dressed in plainclothes. The detective, a 41-year-old father of four, told the thief to stop. Yasaian drew his gun and shot him three times. Then he disappeared into the crowded street. Three days later he killed himself in a Somerville railroad yard.

Yasaian may have been the triggerman, but Dellelo is just as culpable, Faherty said.

''They both went into the jewelry store to cause violence," he said. ''Whether it wasn't his gun doesn't matter. . . . He was part and parcel of it."

Dellelo was released from prison in November 2003, he said, after he was granted a new trial and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Carol Carpenter, 64, Holmes's cousin, said she cannot fault Dellelo for wanting a new start. Other family members could not be reached yesterday.

Carpenter recalled her cousin's funeral at St. Patrick's Church, where Cardinal Richard J. Cushing said Mass. Hundreds of uniformed police officers followed the casket from the funeral home to the church. ''I can remember it like it was yesterday," she said. ''It appeared that the entire Boston Police Department was there."

Since those painful days, she has thought of the men responsible for Holmes's death and has found it difficult to be bitter.

''Do we want to be judged for what we did at 21 even if it was a horrible thing?" she asked. ''It was just a bank robbery gone bad. Forty years have gone by. [Dellelo's] lost his youth."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/21/controversy_on_criminal_records_intensifies?mode=PF
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