MADISON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A parole hearing was postponed Wednesday for the last of the six men still in prison for the 1992 murder of Green Bay paper mill worker Tom Monfils due to “circumstances in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the state.
Keith Kutska’s review was scheduled to be with one of the parole commissioners, according to the Dept. of Corrections.
The DOC did not offer any specifics of what those circumstances were, but said Thursday the hearing was postponed for two months.
When held, several factors will be reviewed.
“The Commissioner will assess Mr. Kutska’s satisfaction of the five requirements for a grant (conduct, programming, risk reduction, time served, and release plan), and will make a recommendation to the Chair,” according to Oliver Buchino, an offender records associate with the Parole Commission, told FOX 11 before the hearing.
A final decision would be issued several weeks after the hearing.
Kutska’s last review was in March 2021. That was denied because although Kutska, 70, had satisfied the conduct requirement, the programming, risk reduction, time served, and release plan requirements remained unmet.
Monfils was found dead in the bottom of a pulp vat at the then-James River mill on Green Bay’s east side. Six men — Kutska, Dale Basten, Michael Johnson, Michael Piaskowski, Rey Moore and Michael Hirn — were convicted after a joint trial. All were sentenced to life in prison, with a variety of parole eligibility dates.
A federal judge overturned Piaskowski’s conviction in 2001. The other four were paroled in recent years, leaving just Kutska in prison. He is currently housed at the Jackson Correctional Institution, state records show.
It was Kutska’s theft of an extension cord — reported by Monfils — which triggered the sequence of events which led to the murder, according to prosecutors. However, all six men have maintained their innocence.
Kutska is currently housed at the Jackson Correctional Institution, according to DOC records.
