AThe state parole board Monday denied parole for a Rancho Mirage man convicted of second-degree murder in the 1992 traffic death of a Palm Springs nightclub owner and longtime friend of the late Frank Sinatra.
 Sabrina Brummond / PE.com Jeffrey Perrotte, left, sits Monday during his parole hearing at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe. Perrotte, convicted in the 1992 death of Jilly Rizzo, was denied parole. |
An Indio jury found Perrotte guilty of second-degree murder in July 1993 based on his past record of driving under the influence and evidence that he was intoxicated at the time of the fatal crash. A Superior Court commissioner sentenced Perrotte to 15-years-to-life in prison the following month.
A three-member panel of the state Board of Prison Terms issued a two-year denial of parole Monday following Perrotte’s second request for release. In its ruling, the board cited the “callous and cruel manner” in which Perrotte, who left the scene of the crash, let Rizzo burn to death.
Because Perrotte had medical training acquired in the military, he had the knowledge to save Rizzo’s life – but instead he left Rizzo to burn to death, according to the commission’s ruling.
Perrotte’s murder conviction for an alcohol-related traffic offense was the first of its kind in the Coachella Valley.
Perrotte’s blood-alcohol level measured 0.13 percent shortly after the 1992 crash. He had three previous drunk-driving convictions.
Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Sara Danville attended Perrotte’s hearing and argued against his release. Danville said she believed Perrotte still posed an “unreasonable risk to the community.”
Perrotte choked back tears as he spoke to the board Monday.
“I know my behavior was horrible. I’m ashamed. It’s my fault. I know had I not been drinking and driving, Mr. Rizzo would not have lost his life,” he said.
Members of Perrotte’s family contend that he remains in prison because the victim was a former Palm Springs nightclub owner with close ties to Frank Sinatra.
“My son-in-law is a different person now,” Ed Lambert of Rancho Mirage said in a phone interview Friday. “He teaches others not to drink and drive from behind bars.”
Perrotte launched a Web site, www.drinkdriveprison.com, about two weeks before his scheduled parole hearing. The Web site includes Perrotte’s account of the accident with a strong admonition against driving under the influence. The site also lobbies for his release.
Perrotte has served about 12 years in state prison. He was first denied parole in November 2002.
Perrotte’s attorney, Scott W. Sklar of Palm Springs, argued before the board that Perrotte created the Web site to educate others about the perils of drunk driving.
“He’s worked hard on the inside (of prison) and clearly reached people on the outside,” Sklar said. “He has a nonviolent disciplinary record while incarcerated.”
During his murder trial, prosecutors contended that Perrotte drove a car while drunk despite three previous convictions for drunk driving and completion of court-ordered education and treatment programs. He admitted that he lied when he told police at the scene that his future wife, Michelle Churis Perrotte, was driving the car at the time of the accident.
During his trial, Perrotte denied on the witness stand that he had a drinking problem or that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Perrotte testified that his blood-alcohol level was above the 0.08 legal limit in California because he downed a shot of whiskey after leaving the accident scene to calm his nerves.
According to court documents, jurors decided he was grossly negligent in driving 85 mph in a 50-mph zone, making him responsible for Rizzo’s death.
“This case, from the point of view of our office, is extremely serious and we continue to believe Perrotte’s release poses an unreasonable risk to the public,” Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask said by telephone Friday.
The case set a standard for prosecuting similar cases in Riverside County, Trask said. After the Perrotte case, “We began looking at the criteria for cases where drunk driving caused death,” he said.
“He let a living man burn to death,” Danville said Monday after the hearing.