Sentencing Points Up Irony of the Death of Alcoholism Counselor

Former prison alcoholism counselor Linda Lancaster of Rancho Palos Verdes was so scrupulous about not driving after drinking that she decided to walk to a wine-and-cheese party in the quiet university town of Orono, Me.

It was a fatal mistake.

In a Feb. 18 accident, Peter Gagnon, 30, an intoxicated millworker, crashed his pick-up truck into Lancaster, pinning her to the sidewalk. Lancaster--a former high-level federal prison official who had returned to college for a doctorate in counseling--died three hours later.

In a Superior Court in Maine on Wednesday, the irony was not lost. If circumstances had been different, the prosecutor said, Lancaster, 37, could easily have been counseling Gagnon for his alcohol problem.

“She would have been one of the first to help him,” said Lancaster’s mother Eleanor Nicholson in a telephone interview from Bangor, where she had attended Gagnon’s sentencing.

“She is no longer here to help others in that position. I don’t know if it is irony or destiny,” she said of her daughter’s death.

Gagnon, who has a history of drunk driving offenses, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and drunk driving. He was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in state prison.

The judge remarked on a deluge of letters paying tribute to Lancaster that he had received before the sentencing.

One of those letters was from the retired director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Norman A. Carlson, for whom Lancaster served as an assistant for two years. “In addition to possessing a keen mind, she was a personable and caring individual who went out of her way to assist those less fortunate than herself,” Carlson wrote.

Fifty of her students at the University of Maine, where she was a teaching assistant, co-signed another letter.

Theodore Coladarci, an associate professor, wrote that Lancaster was “special among the special.”

“I thought fondly of the inevitable day that I would write her letter of recommendation. . . . Yet, with intolerable grief and a sense of obscene injustice, I find myself writing this letter instead.”

Lancaster, who began work in the prison system as director of the substance abuse program at the Lompoc Federal Prison Camp, was promoted rapidly, including serving as associate warden at a federal prison in New York City. But she decided that she missed counseling, her mother said, and in 1985 she entered graduate studies in Orono.

Her mother described her as a single, career woman with many close friends. She was married at 19, but seven years later, divorced and kept her married name.

“She did ask me once if she was depriving me of part of my life by not giving her a grandchild,” Nicholson said. “My response was, ‘That is your life.’ ”

Walking With Friend

On the day of her death, Lancaster had called her parents, her 6-year-old nephew and friends. The rest of the day was spent working in anticipation of a friendly get-together in the evening for wine and cheese, said fellow graduate student Judy Sutter, who was walking with Lancaster and was injured in the accident.

“We both were busy . . . getting as much done as we could, so we could take the evening off,” Sutter said in a telephone interview.

While the two graduate students were busy, Gagnon was getting drunk, according to court testimony and police reports.

On his way home from work in the early afternoon, he bought a fifth of Seagrams Seven whiskey, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Roberts.

Gagnon drank three-quarters of the bottle, washing the liquor down with cola, and then went to a pizza parlor about 7 p.m. and asked for a beer, Roberts said in a telephone interview.

Recalls Court Account

Lancaster’s mother recalled the court account.

Gagnon said in the pizza parlor that he was “so drunk now that one beer isn’t going to make any difference,” Nicholson said.

About that time, Lancaster and Sutter began their walk.

It was a clear night. Snow covered the ground but the street was dry, according to police reports of the accident.

“The purpose of the evening,” Sutter said, “was to take a stroll for a short way and enjoy some friends’ company. I can’t imagine anything more innocent or safe. The reason we were walking was that we were going to have wine and cheese with our friends and we thought it would be irresponsible to drive.”

Sutter, who suffered a broken leg and head injuries, remembers little about the accident.

“I remember I was packing the knapsack with wine and cheese. I don’t remember leaving the apartment,” she said.

‘Where Is My Friend?’

“I next remember lying on the ground and a woman was holding me and she was crying. The lights were flashing. I kept asking, ‘Where is my friend?’ They thought I was a passenger and when Peter Gagnon kept saying there was no one with him, then they began looking under the truck.”

Rescuers discovered Lancaster, moaning, face down under the overturned truck.

Police said that Gagnon had been driving 52 m.p.h. in a 35-m.p.h. zone when he lost control of his pickup. Tests showed he had a blood-alcohol level of .22%--nearly three times the legal limit in Maine.

In return for a guilty plea, Superior Court Judge Jack O. Smith sentenced Gagnon to the maximum 10 years for manslaughter, suspending the last 2 1/2 years, and imposing a concurrent 4-year term for driving under the influence.

Gagnon, who had a prior drunk driving conviction in Florida and had his license suspended in Maine for another drunk driving incident, must abstain from alcohol during probation, receive counseling and perform 300 hours of community service, Roberts said. With time off for good behavior, Gagnon could be out in five years, with three years of probation.

Not Severe Enough

Lancaster’s mother said the sentence is not severe enough.

“I was disappointed,” she said. “Linda used to say that the sentences were not meaningful enough to an offender. She said they should be longer and they got out too soon and it was easy for them to do time and they just became repeat offenders.”

Nicholson, who said she suffered a nervous breakdown after her daughter’s death, and her husband have donated $50,000 to set up the Linda N. Lancaster Professional Fund for Doctoral Students in the education department at the University of Maine.

“She had a beautiful personality,” she said. “She was a beautiful person. She had an infectious smile, always laughing. It is a terrible tragedy that she couldn’t contribute all that she was able to.”