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But not for long enough to satisfy the survivors of Patton's girlfriend, Heather Demou, who died in a fall from his truck during a parking-lot squabble last year.
Patton, 53, a former state prosecutor, yesterday was sentenced in Bucks County Court to serve three to 23 months in the county prison.
"We were instructed to sit tall as choirboys and let the justice system do its work," Demou's brother, Mike Butler, said after the sentencing. "I'll say this to the lawless land of Bucks County: This is what you sit back and wait for?"
Patton had been convicted July 31 of driving under the influence and recklessly endangering another person, both misdemeanors. A jury acquitted him of more serious crimes, including vehicular homicide, stemming from the April 26, 2007, death of Demou, 34.
Demou died of head injuries after falling from Patton's moving pickup truck onto the parking lot of La Stalla, a restaurant in Newtown Township. A Realtor and mother of two, Demou had quarreled with Patton moments earlier and had jumped onto the side of the truck as it pulled away.
Patton, whose four-month relationship with Demou had been tumultuous, testified that he did not know she was on the truck when he pulled away. The jury's verdict did not hold him responsible for her death, only for drunken driving and the danger he posed to others in the busy, darkened parking lot.
The sentence imposed by Judge David W. Heckler was at the upper end of state sentencing guidelines for reckless endangerment.
As a lawyer, the judge told Patton, "you simply knew better" than to drive drunk through a busy parking lot. Heckler also gave Patton 160 hours of community service, along with a concurrent, two- to 30-day sentence for DUI.
The judge said he would not allow Patton to serve any of his time on house arrest and would consider work release only for community service.
Patton, a former Bucks County prosecutor and assistant state attorney general, apologized in court to Demou's survivors.
"I pray for Heather. I pray for her children. I know their pain," he said. "I am not trying to mitigate my behavior, but if I could do anything to bring her back, I would."
The sentence and Patton's words were of little consolation to Demou's family.
"You all come here for a job, but I came here for justice," her daughter, Stephanie Butler, 17, said in the courtroom before Heckler announced the sentence. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out."
Turning to Patton, she added, "You did a good job. Six months for murder, not bad."
The minimum sentence turned out to be half what she had expected.
"My family will never, ever completely heal from this," Stephanie Butler told Heckler. "There will always be scars on our hearts from this. And we will always remember why, and who is responsible. And how he beat the system."
Deputy Attorney General Patrick Blessington, who prosecuted Patton, urged Heckler to sentence him severely. He asked the judge to consider the family's loss, as well as testimony about domestic abuse by Patton that the judge had not allowed the jury to hear.
"This is about a loss of a life," Blessington said. He said Patton's treatment of Demou went "beyond the norm. We respectfully ask the court to sentence this defendant beyond the norm."
Defense attorney Brian McMonagle countered that Patton "has lived an exemplary life." Patton "has stood up for his community again and again and again," by serving in the military and prosecuting criminals, he said.
McMonagle argued that though the accident was tragic, Patton "did not cause this woman's death. And while that is painful to hear, that is the fact of this case."
After the sentencing, Mike Butler said the family would pursue a wrongful-death civil suit against Patton.
Patton was led off in handcuffs through a private exit. McMonagle declined to comment on the sentence.
at 215-345-0446 or lking@phillynews.com.
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