“We left with a little cup that contained her earrings and a baggie with a lock of her hair. That is all we had left of [our] beautiful baby girl.” —Susan Sorbera, Meghan’s mother
Family's grief overwhelms court at hit-run sentencing
Even the presiding judge admitted to battling with his own emotions so that he, too, wouldn’t break down in addressing the packed courtroom Thursday.
Grief and a palpable sadness overwhelmed the legal proceedings when State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski sentenced disbarred lawyer John P. Duffy, 41, to the maximum prison term in the hit-and-run accident that killed Meghan Sorbera last October.
Denouncing Duffy for his “cowardly actions,” Michalski ordered the former lawyer from Hamburg to serve 2x to 7 years in prison for the death of the 19-year-old Hilbert College student early on the morning of Oct. 18.
For an hour and a half, a hushed courtroom heard impassioned pleas from Sorbera’s brother, father and mother; from Duffy’s attorney; from Duffy’s wife; and even from Duffy himself.
Susan Sorbera, Meghan’s mother, recalled the awful moment when she and her husband, Peter, left Erie County Medical Center, just after their daughter died that morning.
But it was clear that Duffy’s family also has been devastated.
“I hesitate to say I’m sorry in this courtroom, because words cannot be enough,” said Duffy, battling his own emotions as he faced the family. “No words are ever going to erase what happened to the Sorbera family.”
The Sorberas made it clear that they don’t care about the dozens of letters sent to the court that portray Duffy as a good, caring and decent man.
Sorbera family members say they never can forgive Duffy, especially for trying to cover up his role in the fatality.
“The moment you left her on the side of the road, all the good you’d done [in life] drove off with you,” Meghan’s older brother, also Peter, told Duffy.
“It is my hope that it never leaves your mind, your thoughts or your dreams. It will never leave mine,” he added.
The lengthy proceeding also included a spirited plea from Duffy’s attorney, Daniel J. Chiacchia, contending that Duffy, who previously pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, is not “the cold-blooded monster the media made him out to be.”
Chiacchia said that his client didn’t appear intoxicated to others that night, after having about four drinks over the previous six hours; that he suffers from multiple sclerosis; that the accident occurred when he reached down to pick up something that had fallen to the floor of his sport utility vehicle; that he didn’t know he had hit anyone; that his attempted cover-up occurred when he felt overwhelmed and panicked; and that he drove to Kinzua Dam in Warren County, Pa., with the thought of committing suicide three days later.
“The voice of his dead father talked him out of it,” Chiacchia said. “He backed away.”
The most gripping moments of Thursday’s courtroom appearance might have come from Meghan’s parents. They recounted the moments of that early morning, after hearing the news that is any parent’s worst nightmare — that their child is critically injured.
After racing here from their Burlington Flats home, near Cooperstown, the Sorberas kept a vigil in Erie County Medical Center while doctors tried to save their daughter.
“When I finally got to see my daughter, she was on a gurney, her face was swollen, and she was fighting for her life,” Peter Sorbera told the courtroom.
“But it wasn’t to be. I watched my daughter die in front of me, and I never got a chance to say goodbye.”
No one in the courtroom made a sound as Susan Sorbera recalled the sight of her daughter that will remain with her forever:
The young woman’s face swollen to three times its normal size. Her hair matted with blood, with blood streaming from her nostrils and the white sheet under her head turned crimson from the gash on the back of her head.
“Meghan’s body just lay motionless,” her mother said. “I thought, this can’t be; it just can’t be my daughter.
“I watched the monitor flat-line when her heart stopped, how they administered CPR to her. . . . Then I heard the doctor say, ‘It’s been too long; that’s enough.’ Time of death, 7:18 a. m. It was over, my baby was gone. I just sat there, holding her hand, staring at her, waiting for her to wake up.”
Read Susan Sorbera's complete statement here.
The sentencing began with prosecutor Lynette M. Reda telling Michalski that the video and audio recording of the statement Duffy gave Town of Hamburg police was in direct contrast to the remorse depicted in the letters sent to the judge on Duffy’s behalf.
Reda then gave way to the Sorberas, starting with Meghan’s father, who recalled that his wife and daughter were so alike that family members called them twins.
“I used to ask my wife, ‘What is it like to raise your twin?’ ” Peter Sorbera recalled, in one of the few light moments.
A former corrections officer who retired early partly to watch his daughter grow up, Sorbera talked about how Meghan almost came home that weekend, about all the tributes to her at her memorial service and about the family never getting to attend her wedding.
“She’s my life,” he said. “My life has been ripped apart now.”
So has the life of his 7-year-old son, Meghan’s younger brother.
“For the first time in his life, he hates somebody,” Peter Sorbera said. “He wants to do bodily harm to him.”
Meghan’s father concluded his remarks by addressing Michalski: “I am asking you, as a father and as a former corrections officer, to give him the maximum sentence.”
The younger Peter Sorbera then addressed the question of Duffy’s good character.
“What you did following the accident on Oct. 18 is how I measure your character,” he said. “Your actions were those of a selfish coward.”
Susan Sorbera stunned the courtroom when she recounted what appeared to be the last “message” from her daughter on the morning she was killed.
“At 1:35 a. m. on Oct. 18, I was jolted awake by the sound of Meghan’s voice,” Susan Sorbera recalled. “She said, ‘Momma, I am hurt. I need you, please come.’ ”
Thirteen minutes later, the Sorberas’ phone rang, with the awful news. As they raced to Buffalo, they got various reports about Meghan’s condition.
“Deep down inside, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. It’s a mother’s intuition, a twin’s instinct,” Susan Sorbera said.
Chiacchia then took the floor, to provide the public with some of the facts that hadn’t come out previously about his client.
Duffy wasn’t drunk that night, Chiacchia said, and a fast-food restaurant’s surveillance camera supports that assertion. Also, a woman driving behind Duffy didn’t see or hear anything to suggest that someone had been struck, the lawyer said, and that woman also didn’t stop after Meghan was struck.
Chiacchia had little defense for Duffy’s actions in trying to cover up the incident. Authorities have accused him of trying to get his vehicle repaired and tampering with evidence.
“He panics, judge,” Chiacchia said. “He’s overwhelmed by the thought that his actions caused the death of this young woman.”
Chiacchia then asked Michalski, “Should a man be judged by an act so inconsistent with the person he has been all his life?”
Tracey Duffy, the defendant’s wife, then said her family has been overwhelmed to hear all the negatives about her husband, whom she called a good man and an excellent father.
“My children and I can’t imagine a life without him,” she said.
Then Duffy, in an emotional, somewhat rambling speech, told the Sorberas that this proceeding wasn’t about him, but about their family, because “you’ve lost the most.”
He swore that he did not know he had struck anyone, but he called his actions after he knew “selfish,” “out of control,” “appalling” and a “disgrace.” And he said he refuses to use his multiple sclerosis as any kind of crutch or excuse.
Then he turned to Michalski and said, “I must ask your honor for forgiveness and mercy in deciding my fate.”
Michalski talked about the compassion some had urged for Duffy, a compassion that some letter writers have said they were not ready to bestow on him.
“The Sorbera family and this court are not there yet, either,” the judge said.
“Mr. Duffy, you must be punished for your actions that night and for your cowardly actions [afterward],” Michalski said before imposing the sentence.
Then Duffy was taken from the court in handcuffs, a final punctuation to what was, for everyone involved, a sad day.
gwarner@buffnews.com and mgryta@buffnews.com
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