GUILTY: Frances Jasmin will spend up to four years in prison.
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A “cowardly” Brooklyn woman who sped off after running over a young mayoral aide while gabbing on a cellphone was slapped with the maximum sentence yesterday by a judge who called her conduct “despicable and irresponsible.”
Frances Jasmin, 30, was hit with a sentence of 1 1/3-to-4 years in prison for careening into Erinn Phelan, a coordinator with Mayor Bloomberg’s volunteer agency, the NYC Civic Corps, on Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights on Feb. 21, 2010.
Phelan, who was left in a permanent vegetative state after her head crashed through the windshield of Jasmin’s car, had a “sterling character, a vivacious past and an outstanding future,” said Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Joseph McKay.
The judge said he could find “not an ounce of mitigation” and told Jasmin she “must be punished in the most severe way.”
After Jasmin hit Phelan, who was struck as she heroically shoved her college roommate, Alma Guerrero, out of harm’s way, she continued to yak on her cellphone and, according to prosecutors, returned to the scene but never called the police, heading home instead and acting as if nothing had happened.
In an emotional victim-impact statement, Phelan’s mom, Mary, asked McKay to hand down the stiffest possible sentence and told Jasmin, “You may have been found guilty, but Erinn is serving the maximum sentence.”
“It took just one moment of time for so many lives to be changed,” said Mary Phelan.
She thumped the table as she recounted Jasmin’s saying, “Something hit my car,” as she drove off.
“That ‘something’ was Erinn, a person always looking out for someone else,” the mother said. “Now all her dreams and wishes have been lost.”
Erinn Phelan’s sister, Helene, told McKay that Phelan had a “strong will, unbreakable faith and perseverance” but now “spends her day either lying in bed or sitting in her wheelchair among elderly dementia patients.”
“We are still waiting for a miracle,” she said.
Mary Phelan said her daughter’s medical bills total in the millions and continue to grow as Phelan remains unlikely to recover.
“This is no way for a 24-year-old to spend the rest of her life,” she said.
Helene Phelan recommended that, as an alternative to prison, Jasmin be sentenced to a “lifetime of community service” — planting trees, working in a soup kitchen and other tasks to keep the city clean and safe.
“She [Erinn] has been robbed of her dignity, and it cannot be restored by someone spending a few years in jail,” Helene Phelan said.
Jasmin, who was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the hit-and-run accident, meekly told McKay that she would accept whatever sentence was handed out.
She turned to the Phelan family and said, “There are no words that can relieve the pain. I will continue to pray for Erinn.”
william.gorta@ny
post.com