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Courtney Orton reportingA chronic drunk driving offender is off to jail, but some are wondering if his latest sentence was too light.
Paul Sefilian has been convicted of 11 DUIs in the past 15 years. He was in court earlier this week, and despite requests from prosecutors for prison time, the judge sentenced him to one year in jail.
"We are beyond that point of trying to help him overcome the problem or give him treatment. We are now at a point where we just need to protect the community from him," explained Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Alicia Cook.
Cook says protecting the community from Sefilian would have meant prison time not jail time. "If he would have been sent to prison, there is a possibility that he would serve much longer than a year because when he reaches that parole hearing date, if he's not considered safe to return to the community, he remains in prison."
Mary Phillips isn't familiar with Sefilian's case, but she is the public policy director with Freeway Watch, a Utah group that advocates the use of drug courts in repeat DUI offenders cases.
"With a person with his kind of history -- knowing that when you go to prison you get 90 days before your case reviewed, where in jail there's no given to how many days you'll do -- why in the world wouldn't we try to lock this person up and keep us all safe?" Phillips questioned.
She wants to see more drug courts in Utah so DUI offenders like Sefilian get the help they need. "Years ago, courts were made to have equal justice. Now they need to be social change agents," she said.
Kristin Erskin works with men addicted to drugs and alcohol and says sometimes it takes multiple times to get clean. She says not all hope is lost.
"For him, is there no hope? No. I think there is. He either needs to find the right combination and the right motivation, or it's a good question. I'd like to talk to him about it," Erskin said.
Calls to Sefilian's attorney were not returned.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
