The widow of slain Lexington police officer Bryan Durman is gathering signatures on a petition to keep her husband’s killer behind bars.
Glenn Doneghy was convicted of second degree manslaughter in the hit-and-run death of Officer Durman in 2011, but is scheduled for his first parole hearing next month.
In the online petition, Brandy Durman says the 30 year sentence originally recommended by jurors in the Doneghy case was shortened to a maximum of 20 years under Kentucky law and he will be eligible for parole after serving 20 percent of his sentence. And that date is fast approaching.
Durman told WKYT that she received the notice in the mail.
"It's very hard to wrap my mind around how somebody could intentionally take his life with a vehicle and be able to walk free and see his family in just almost four years," she says.
Durman says the letter she received says that the only option for the Kentucky Parole Board to consider is to "defer" Doneghy's parole for 2 years.
Following her husband’s death, Durman successfully lobbied to change the law so that anyone convicted of second-degree manslaughter of a clearly identified police officer or firefighter would have to serve 85 percent of the sentence, but the change was not retroactive.
Her petition requesting that Doneghy serve out his full sentence has so far garnered 11,139 signatures.
