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