<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div></div><div>Courtesy of the Salem News (Salem, Massachusetts) at:</div><div><br></div><a href="http://m.salemnews.com/TSN/pm_104190/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=zw4bCcRE">http://m.salemnews.com/TSN/pm_104190/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=zw4bCcRE</a><div><div><br></div><div>------------------------------</div><div id="storyContainer" style="float: left; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; width: 999px; font-family: Arial; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(70, 70, 70); line-height: 20px; "><p class="headInterstate" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); font-size: 19px; font-weight: bold; ">No jail time for man with 17 DUIs</span><br></p><p class="headInterstate" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">PEABODY — A Peabody man still on probation after his 17th drunken-driving conviction persuaded a judge yesterday not to send him back to jail, after he was caught driving again in September.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Charles Stefanilo Jr.'s license had been revoked for life as a result of his long history of drinking and driving. But that didn't stop him from getting behind the wheel over the Labor Day weekend, and probation officials wanted a judge to revoke his probation as a result.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"That means I would be doing eight years in jail," Stefanilo, 55, complained to Judge Timothy Feeley. "It's crazy."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Stefanilo, who hasn't had a valid license to drive since at least 1995, served nearly five years in jail following his 16th drunken-driving conviction in Massachusetts. He also has at least one out-of-state conviction.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">His 2004 arrest in Peabody was actually his 20th drunken-driving arrest, but he was able to beat four of the cases on his record, which dates to 1977.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Under the terms of an unusual sentence imposed after that 2004 arrest, Stefanilo also received a suspended two-year jail term for being a habitual traffic offender and an almost-unheard-of 25 years of probation, along with a $50,000 fine.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">During yesterday's violation-of-probation hearing in Salem Superior Court, probation officials asked Feeley to revoke Stefanilo's probation and send him back to jail to serve out that two-year term, citing a Sept. 5 arrest on charges of driving while under license revocation and other offenses.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Feeley denied the request, instead putting Stefanilo back on probation, albeit with a stern warning.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"I will not revoke probation," Feeley said. "I will continue him on probation. You can't drive, not today, not tomorrow, not 10 years from now."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">That's the same thing the Registry of Motor Vehicles has told him repeatedly, according to a driver history provided by the agency.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">His license was permanently revoked following his 2005 conviction.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Yet Stefanilo insisted in court yesterday that his former attorney, Maria Curtatone, told him that he might someday qualify for a hardship license that would allow him to drive for work.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">His work? After his release from jail, Stefanilo bought a canteen truck.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"You've got a business that requires trucks, and you can't drive?" Feeley asked.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Stefanilo told the judge that he has hired drivers.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">But on Sept. 5, the day Stefanilo was stopped by police in Burlington, his driver had to pick up her child and "I had a big inspection coming up. I ended up just taking a shot, which I should've never did. I'm kind of mad at myself."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">He also expressed frustration at the limitations on his mobility.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"I can't be every place I want to be," Stefanilo said. "I need rides."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"Every time I ever got stopped before, I was drunk," he said. "This time, I was sober. On the biggest weekend of the year, I was dead sober."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">He says he's been sober for 8<span class="superscript">1</span>/<span class="subscript">2</span> years, ever since his last drunken-driving arrest.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">On the evening of Jan. 17, 2004, Stefanilo was drunk when he crashed a rented car he'd borrowed (without permission) from a friend on the ramp from Centennial Drive to Route 128 in Peabody, he later admitted in court.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">At the time, he was still on probation for a 1999 drunken-driving conviction.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Stefanilo said that since his release from jail (after four years, 10 months and 22 days, he said yesterday), he's regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in Andover.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">He also told the judge that while serving his time, he took part in a Scared Straight program, speaking to high school students.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Stefanilo, who was also charged with disobeying an officer and with driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle with defective equipment, received a 60-day sentence from a Woburn District Court judge after his September arrest.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">"I am guilty," Stefanilo said. "I'm not going to say I'm not guilty."</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">He had already completed that jail term before yesterday's hearing, leaving him free to walk out of court with his sister and his doctor.</p><p class="text1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Outside court, Stefanilo refused to comment, saying, "You people already had a field day with me."</p></div><div><br></div><div>------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow.</div><div><br></div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"If not us, who?</div><div>If not now, when?"</div><div><br></div><div>- Unknown</div></div></div></body></html>