John's brother, Frank Valverde, writes:

In 1991, John ended the life of a Manhattan serial rapist known as the beast of West Street. This man had raped John's girlfriend. After going to the police on 4 separate occasions and being told there was nothing they could do, John used poor judgment and decided to confront the offender on his own. He wanted the offender to know of the damage he had caused and make the offender feel accountable in some way. This naive attempt to do what was right, turned very wrong. During his trial the District Attorney from New York County portrayed John's crime as a murder. We understand the D.A's professional desire to obtain a conviction on the most serious charge, but a jury completely rejected this portrayal, acquitted John of murder, and found that John acted under extreme emotional distress when he fired one fatal bullet. Instead of murder, John was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. John's case was highly publicized in the media and he appeared on The Donahue Show, the Maury Povich Show, and Inside Edition while out on bail in 1992. During sentencing, the judge stated that she was making an example of John to send the message that taking the law into one's own hands will not be tolerated. John was sentenced to 8 - 24 years and 2-6 years, respectively, for an aggregate of 10 to 30 years in prison. This made him eligible for parole at the ten year mark, as long as he met all the standards outlined in Executive Law 259-i and displayed remorse, responsibility, redemption and rehabilitation. We believe that no one exemplifies these more than John Valverde and that no one has fulfilled the requirements of the Executive Law in a more exemplary fashion. Yet, John has already been denied parole three times.