Biography
Paul Kovac was one of the 1926 Passaic, New Jersey textile strikers prosecuted in the "bomb plot" frame-up that followed the great strike of 15,000 mill workers — charges the defense showed rested on firecrackers and paid testimony, brought as the mills' answer to the year-long strike. Convicted in early 1927 and sentenced to one to five years, he was held in the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton and the Bergen County jail. The ILD's Labor Defender carried the defendants' cases and their families' relief through 1927.
The January 28, 1927 Passaic report identifies this existing bomb-case defendant among five still held at Hackensack awaiting trial under $15,000 bail each. The five were not among the six sentenced that afternoon. This corroborates actual pretrial detention without replacing the later individual disposition or copying the other cohort’s parole date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1927/1927-ny/v04-n014-NY-jan-29-1927-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
1920s custody review: The contemporary report names this defendant in the eleven-person Passaic bomb-prosecution group arrested in September 1926. Arrest is recorded at month precision, not as an exact September 1 date. The exact prison-admission date is not established by this report. Sources: Daily Worker, page 3, January 28, 1927 dateline (scan catalogued January 29); Daily Worker, May 11, 1928, page 5.
Release documented by February 1928
A Passaic dispatch dated February 29, printed in the March 1, 1928 Daily Worker, reports that Paul Kovac had been released from his one-to-five-year state-prison sentence. It does not state the actual release day or prison-admission day, so the dispatch date is not entered as an exact release date. This brief dates his sentencing to April 1927; that month needs reconciliation with the earlier prosecution reporting before a sentencing date is entered.
The March 1, 1928 Daily Worker carries a February 29 Passaic dispatch reporting that Kovac had been released from his one-to-five-year prison term and explicitly dates sentencing to April 1927. The dispatch does not identify his physical discharge day or month. February 29 is the report date, not a release date; no admission or actual served counter is inferred.