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Inmate's mistaken release was not the only odd thing about the case

It seemed simple enough for the family of Peter Roberto Jr., the 12-year-old boy who was fatally struck by a drunk driver on Thanksgiving night 2004.

It seemed simple enough for the family of Peter Roberto Jr., the 12-year-old boy who was fatally struck by a drunk driver on Thanksgiving night 2004.

The driver, William Halloran, 34, of Mayfair, was taken into custody two weeks ago by the state Board of Probation and Parole after authorities learned that he had been let out of prison a year before he should have been, because of a clerical mistake.

The victim's parents, Peter Roberto Sr. and Dolores Roberto, figured that Halloran would just then serve at least 11 months more in prison - to make up for the time he had been home on parole before the Daily News discovered the error.

But after Halloran was returned to prison, the state Department of Corrections (DOC) put his minimum release date as March 23 of this year, giving him credit for the time he was on parole and raising the possibility that he could have been released next week.

After a two-part hearing this week, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina yesterday ordered the DOC and the parole board to not credit the time during which Halloran "was erroneously at liberty" toward the time he was to serve in prison.

Susan Bensinger, a DOC spokeswoman, said afterward that the agency's records office was expected to follow the judge's order.

Upon hearing that, Dolores Roberto said she was relieved. Earlier in the day, she said there are "no winners here. I feel really bad for his [Halloran's] kids and what they're going through, but I feel more bad for our kids." Halloran, she said, has to "stand up and do what's right, and that is to finish his term."

Tim Heany, Halloran's father-in-law, said after yesterday's hearing: "We regret the entire tragedy that the Roberto family, and now our family, is going through." He said his family looks forward to the day when his son-in-law gets out of prison.

Halloran's attorney, Scott DiClaudio, argued yesterday that Sarmina did not have jurisdiction to determine whether his client should receive credit toward his prison sentence for the time he had been on parole.

On Monday, Denise Wood, the records administrator for the DOC, testified that the records office had decided to give Halloran credit for the time he had been on parole.

"We looked at what the past practice has been," Wood testified. "When somebody has been released from prison from no error on their own, then we don't penalize them" for the time they weren't in prison.

In his argument yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry noted that in past cases, prisons have sought guidance from judges when there was a question about a defendant's sentence and prison time.

Halloran killed Peter Roberto Jr. about 6:45 p.m. Nov. 25, 2004, on Harbison Avenue near Comly Street in Wissinoming. The boy was crossing against a red light. Halloran, who had been drinking earlier in the day and was still under the influence of alcohol, then fled on foot.

On March 23, 2006, a jury convicted Halloran of homicide by vehicle while DUI and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He was taken into custody that day.

About two months later, Sarmina sentenced him to four to eight years in prison (three to six on the homicide charge and a consecutive one to two years on the leaving the scene of a fatal accident).

However, the clerk in the room, who worked for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions office, wrongly filled out the paperwork that was sent to the prison. The error made the second charge concurrent rather than consecutive, leading the DOC to believe that his sentence was three to six years. Halloran was paroled April 2 of last year.

After a March 4 Daily News article on the error and on Halloran's being taken back into custody, some of Halloran's supporters thought he had been too harshly portrayed in the paper.

Todd Dudas, Halloran's brother-in-law, for one, wrote by e-mail that he was not defending Halloran for what he had done, but "Billy should not be the poster boy for the parole issues that plague this city. He is not a repeat offender. He is someone that made a horribly tragic onetime mistake."