Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and Rep. Brad Hill, R-Ipswich, will be spending part of their December trying to hammer out a bill to keep habitual violent offenders behind bars. Meanwhile, beginning Dec. 16, police in Salem and other communities will be posting extra patrols in an effort to keep drunken drivers — each one of them a potential killer — off the road.
So how do you explain the light treatment afforded a Peabody man with an atrocious driving record, including 17 drunken-driving convictions, who was stopped for driving without a license last Labor Day weekend? His license had been permanently revoked in 2005 after multiple drunken-driving convictions, one of which had landed him in jail for five years.
Charles Stefanilo Jr., 55, pleaded to Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley that an unfavorable decision would likely put him in prison for another eight years — which is probably where he belongs. Instead, Feeley denied the prosecution's request to revoke Stefanilo's probation — imposed following a 2004 arrest for drunken driving in Peabody — and instead gave him a stern warning never to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle again.
Perhaps the judge was in a forgiving mood, it being the day before Thanksgiving. But his decision left Stefanilo free to walk out of court and return to his business — operating a canteen truck (which he says he hires others to drive).
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