Todd Hodne

Hodne played linebacker on the football team at St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, New York. He was recruited to Penn State where, as a freshman, he played in at least seven games, including the 1977 Fiesta Bowl. In the summer before his sophomore year, he along with two friends from Long Island broke into and robbed a record store; after being arrested on burglary charges, he was suspended from the team for the season, though coach Joe Paterno said he could return to the team "if he has a good academic year and if he proves to us that [the robbery] was a mistake."[1]

It later emerged that Hodne had sexually assaulted at least two Penn State students while attending the university. He was brought up on trial in the matter of the second case, being convicted. He was expelled from Penn State in December. Instead of being remanded to custody before sentencing, Hodne was allowed bail and returned home. There, he resumed his predatory behavior and was arrested in May 1979 on four counts of first-degree rape, among other charges. Hodne entered a plea agreement in September of that year, where he pled guilty to two of the rape counts as well as two counts of sexual abuse and one of attempted second-degree robbery. He was sentenced to a minimum of seven years and a maximum of twenty-one years, which were to be served consecutively with his term for his Pennsylvania conviction.[1]

In 1986, Hodne came up for parole. Despite the objections of the Nassau County prosecutor who tried the case, who wrote a letter to the parole board of Eastern New York Correctional Facility, where he had been serving his sentence, detailing Hodne's rape spree once he returned to Wantagh from Pennsylvania, the parole board voted unanimously to release Hodne.[1] He once again returned to Wantagh, where he got a job working for his family's home improvement company, and began seeing a therapist regularly.

However, Hodne repeatedly violated the terms of his parole. He became addicted to crack cocaine, lost his job, and stopped attending his therapy sessions. He was evicted from his girlfriend's apartment in nearby Bethpage after the woman's landlord discovered he was living there, then left a rehabilitation center after a week.[1]

On August 11, 1987, Hodne called for a taxi to pick him up at a White Castle restaurant in Huntington, New York. The driver was a man named Jeffrey Hirsch, who was married with four children and had moved back to Long Island to take care of his ill mother. Hirsch drove Hodne to a side street near the Walt Whitman Mall, where Hodne pulled a knife on him in an attempt to rob him. The two men fought, and in the course of the scuffle Hodne overpowered Hirsch and strangled him, breaking the hyoid bone in Hirsch's neck.[1]

After a resident called 911, Hodne ran from the scene and was eventually caught by a K9 unit. He concocted a story that he and Hirsch were going out trying to score drugs, which enabled him to be released on his own recognizance, and went back home. His parole officer, Lenny Smith, later dropped by to check on him, and Hodne told him the same story. Hodne's brother, however, suspected he was lying and told the officer as much.[1]

Hirsch was left brain dead by the attack and was taken off life support six days later. Hodne was arrested and charged with the murder, claiming self-defense. He was convicted of the murder and given a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.[2] He later recanted his self-defense claim at his one and only parole hearing on the murder conviction.

Hodne died on April 29, 2020, from cancer.