Off-duty officer gets prison for DUI crash that injured three

An off-duty Philadelphia police officer - who pleaded guilty to driving drunk and injuring two state troopers and a tow-truck driver when he crashed into their stopped vehicles on the shoulder of I-95 - was sentenced Wednesday to 111/2 to 23 months in prison.

Matthew Sharkey, 25, turned and apologized to Troopers Matthew Sheeran and Michael Sadowski and tow-truck driver Will Kane.

Then he added: "Sorry doesn't cut it at all."

Sharkey, who joined the police force in 2007 and was fired after the Feb. 20, 2010, crash, pleaded guilty in June to aggravated assault by vehicle while driving intoxicated and related charges.

The crash occurred about 3:30 a.m. after the troopers parked their cruiser behind an abandoned car on northbound I-95 at Girard Avenue.

Kane, a tow-truck driver for the Philadelphia Parking Authority, pulled in front of the abandoned car and was underneath, hooking it up, when Sharkey's car drove through warning flares and hit the back of the cruiser.

Sheeran was pinned between the cruiser and abandoned car. Despite his cuts and bruises, Kane crawled from under the wreck, pulled his truck forward, and freed Sheeran.

Sheeran was the most seriously injured - his legs were crushed - and his wife, Katherine, told Common Pleas Court Judge James Murray Lynn of his recovery after multiple surgeries, implants of cadaver tendons in his knees, and almost two years of rehabilitation.

She said Sheeran, who did not testify, returned to work with the state police on Tuesday.

Assistant District Attorney Terri Domsky read a letter from Kane in which he said the emotional trauma of the crash led him to quit his job and become a bus driver.

Defense attorney James A. Funt, who defended Sharkey with Joseph Kelly, argued for 10 years of probation so Sharkey could continue working at a job it took months to find.

Lynn told Sharkey that he was a good police officer and man but that his decision to drive drunk, and the injuries he caused, required a prison sentence.

Lynn also ordered Sharkey to serve six years of probation. Sharkey is to report to prison Jan. 3.