May 24, 2021 at 10:42 a.m.
Liebscher paroled in hit-and-run death case
Liebscher paroled in hit-and-run death case
By Heather Schaefer and Jamie Taylor-
Liebscher was sentenced on July 30, 2020 after pleading guilty to hit-and-run involving death, a Class D felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Following a 90-minute hearing that included an emotional plea from the victim's mother, Dorothy Holtslander, Oneida County Circuit Judge Patrick O'Melia sentenced Liebscher to three years in prison and seven years extended supervision. He also sentenced Liebscher to 6 months in jail on a felony bail jumping charge filed after Liebscher was found consuming alcohol last Memorial Day weekend in violation of his bond conditions.
According to DOC records, Liebscher was admitted to Dodge Correctional Institution on Aug 25, 2020 to begin serving his sentence. Approximately two months later, on Oct. 29, 2020, he was transferred to a "supervised living facility" where he remained until he was paroled last month.
His date of entry into the state's Earned Release Program (ERP) was Dec. 28, 2020, according to his amended judgment of conviction.
Liebscher successfully completed the program on March 19, 2021, according to a letter from Black River Correctional Center superintendent Matthew Gerber to O'Melia,
"The Department is requesting the Court authorize the release and conversion of the remaining confinement time to extended supervision," Gerber wrote to O'Melia.
In an order dated April 19, O'Melia formally amended Liebscher's judgment of conviction and authorized the conversion, as required under the terms of the earned release program. His extended supervision time will now run until Nov. 19, 2030, according to court records.
Liebscher's pickup truck collided with a motorcycle operated by 23-year-old Sean Holtslander of St. Germain on the evening of Aug. 28, 2019. The crash took place on State Highway 17 in front of Liebscher's driveway.
According to court testimony and reports included with the criminal complaint, Liebscher was in the process of turning into his driveway when he struck Holtslander.
At sentencing, defense attorney Gary Cirilli stated that Liebscher misinterpreted what he was seeing, mistaking the light on Holtslander's motorcycle for a flashlight being held by a pedestrian.
"He misjudged what was coming at him on the highway," Cirilli said.
While Liebscher admitted to drinking alcohol in the hours preceding the collision, the question of whether he was over the .08 legal limit when his truck struck Holtslander's motorcycle will never be answered. This is because Liebscher left the scene and avoided police for approximately 11 hours, making it impossible to determine his blood alcohol level at the time of the accident.
"He left Sean Holtslander lying on the side of Highway 17 alone. Rather than call 9-1-1, he hid his vehicle in the woods, hid from police, and made it impossible to investigate the death," district attorney Mike Schiek said at sentencing. "(Investigators) couldn't draw blood to determine whether he was intoxicated."
(Liebscher's brother Brian ultimately served jail time for driving him to Three Lakes after the accident).
Notably, in his sentencing statement to the court, Liebscher stated he was not impaired at the time of the collision.
Later in the hearing, O'Melia told Liebscher that he believed "alcohol had more to do with this than you're owning up to," and noted that in his opinion an inability to distinguish between a flashlight and a motorcycle light is evidence of impairment.
Less than five months after the sentencing hearing, Liebscher was enrolled in the earned release program.
Given the unique circumstances of this case, namely that Liebscher told the sentencing judge he was not impaired at the time of crash and his attorney described the collision as being caused by driver error rather than impairment due to alcohol consumption, the River News sought information from the Department of Corrections as to how he came to be enrolled in a substance abuse program.
John Beard, DOC director of communications, stated he could not comment directly on Liebscher's case or even confirm his participation in the program, due to health privacy laws, but he did provide the criteria for enrollment in the program which is as follows:
• The sentencing court (judge) determines they are eligible
• The conviction is for a non-violent, non-assaultive offense
• The person has a bifurcated sentence
• The person has identified substance abuse issues and treatment needs
"All individuals who meet the eligibility criteria are on the waitlist for the program but they might remain on the waitlist for a period of time because they do not meet all of the suitability criteria," Beard added.
"The main suitability criteria that they typically do not meet are:
• Being within 48 months of their release date (expanded from 36 months to 48 earlier this year)
• Classified as minimum or medium custody
"If a person in our care meets both the eligibility and suitability criteria, then they can be enrolled in ERP," he added. "People who are eligible for ERP are added to the wait list at intake. Their suitability is evaluated at their reclassification hearings, which happen at least once a year. Some people meet both the eligibility and suitability criteria at intake or shortly after."
As Liebscher received a bifurcated sentenced of three years in prison and seven years extended supervision, he met the criteria related to bifurcation and duration of sentence. Court records also show that O'Melia checked a box included on the judgment of conviction form finding him eligible for the program.
As for the criteria regarding "identified substance abuse issues and treatment needs," the River News asked Beard whether an offender with an alcohol-related bail jumping conviction, as Liebscher has, could be admitted into the substance abuse program regardless of the circumstances surrounding his or her underlying offense.
Beard's response was that the question would have to be answered by the court.
As for mechanisms or safeguards in place to help ensure offenders do not participate in the program to gain earlier release without acknowledging a substance abuse issue, Beard said DOC does an assessment of substance abuse dependence needs at intake.
"In general, if there is case information that contradicts what the person in our care self-reports during the assessment, DOC's Bureau of Classification and Movement will make a referral to a substance use disorder professional who would do a thorough assessment of the case dynamics and person's history, and may assign a treatment need utilizing that information," he explained. "Regardless of any prior claims, persons in our care have formal evaluations on their progress once in a program, including recognition that substances have been a problem in their life and motivation to change. In general, to move forward and complete the program, a person would have to acknowledge that substances have been a problem in their life and address their substance disorder."
In a letter to the court dated March 28, Dorothy Holtslander expressed anguish over this turn of events.
"It would be a great miscarriage of justice to allow him to simply walk away from his sentence. He has been afforded every accommodation throughout this ordeal, at the expense of my family's right to justice for his killing of Sean," she wrote.
The River News reached out to Schiek, Cirilli and O'Melia for information on Liebscher's participation in the earned release program. As of press time, none of the three responded to our inquiry. It should be noted, however, that O'Melia is presiding over a civil lawsuit related to the fatality and thus may be precluded from commenting.
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