Socialite Admits to Selling Drugs, Gets Jail Time

A Newport Beach socialite pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling $1,000 worth of cocaine to an undercover police officer and was sentenced to 300 days in jail, less than a tenth of the term prosecutors had requested.

Tina Schafnitz, a 38-year-old mother of two, confessed her crime to Municipal Judge Steven L. Perk in Santa Ana. She also admitted that she had a handgun in the car when she sold the 16 grams of cocaine.

With hands clasped in front, Schafnitz appeared calm and confident as she answered “yes” to the charges, and smiled broadly following the hearing.

Flanked by her attorney, Robert Newman, and her husband, Matthew Schafnitz, she told a throng of reporters outside the courtroom that she hopes to serve the sentence through home detention.

“They just now said that I possibly could be able to stay at home and have probation check on me,” Schafnitz said.

Neither her attorney nor the prosecutor would comment on whether that possibility already has been discussed with the judge, but Newman said Schafnitz does plan to apply for home detention. Another possibility, he said, is serving the time at the Newport Beach city jail, for which she would pay a daily fee.

In the meantime, she is scheduled to report to the Orange County Jail in a week. The sentence also includes three years of probation and a $5,000 fine.

Schafnitz said she believes her long-standing work for various charities in Orange County played an important role in the lenient sentence.

Schafnitz had faced a maximum sentence of 11 years and eight months, and prosecutors asked the judge for a sentence of nine years and eight months.

Joe Nedza, who prosecuted the case, said, “I think it’s a state prison case. We’re talking about a substantial amount of narcotics.”

But Perk cited Schafnitz’s remorse and lack of a criminal history in sentencing her to jail.

Newman, her attorney, said the judge’s decision “is reasonable, wise and appropriate.

“It’s life in the ‘90s,” Newman said. “I think it’s something that more than anything else, shows that it can happen to anyone.”

Matthew Schafnitz, a partner at a Laguna Hills insurance brokerage, said his wife is trying to address her problems and that Tuesday’s guilty plea demonstrated that.

“It brings closure to this issue,” said Matthew Schafnitz, 55. “We can get on with our lives now.”

Tina Schafnitz was caught selling the 16 grams--a considerable amount compared with the typical street deal of less than a gram--to a Tustin officer on March 16 outside a Mexican restaurant at 17th Street and the Costa Mesa Freeway. Police also found a small amount of cocaine in her possession and an unloaded .380 semiautomatic handgun, with a couple of clips of bullets, in the trunk of her Mercedes-Benz.

Her arrest shocked many longtime friends in Newport Beach’s society circle, many of whom had grown accustomed to seeing the Schafnitzes at a wide range of events, supporting such charities as the American Heart Assn., American Cancer Society and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The couple’s involvement in charities intensified after the birth of their first son, Alexandre, who was diagnosed with achondroplasia, a type of dwarfism. That led the Schafnitzes to play a prominent role in the Short Stature Foundation based in Irvine. They often hosted charity events at their $1.5-million ocean-view home.

Schafnitz said after her sentencing that she plans to continue charity work.

Gina Lagle, a family friend who attended Tuesday’s hearing, said Schafnitz “is not a dope dealer. She just got caught up with the wrong people, at the wrong place and the wrong time.”

Tina Schafnitz volunteered to enroll in a rehabilitation program following the arrest, her attorney said. She has left that facility only for court appearances, he said.

Matthew Schafnitz said he has had to be “mom and dad in one person.”

“Our 8-year-old has seen his mom’s picture on the front page of the newspaper for saying yes to drugs instead of no. It’s been very difficult. It’s not an example I want for my kids,” he said. “But I will do my best, and pray that she gets better.”