Friend of Randy Salerno gets probation

By Admin on July 21, 2009

After a Wisconsin judge sentenced a friend of WBBM-Ch. 2 anchor Randy Salerno to 3 years of probation in the snowmobile crash that killed the popular newsman, Salerno’s wife visited the Crystal Lake cemetery where her husband rests.

Irene Salerno said she wrote a letter asking Vilas County Circuit Judge Neil Nielsen III not to send Scott Hirschey to prison. Randy Salerno’s parents and siblings also requested leniency, she said.

“It would just be another tragedy,” Irene Salerno said by cell phone during her stop at Crystal Lake Memorial Park.

A childhood friend of Salerno’s who remained close through adulthood, Hirschey has suffered enough because of last year’s crash, she said. Hirschey was a pallbearer at Salerno’s funeral and has coached the Little League team on which the Salernos’ 9-year-old son, Charlie, plays.

“He was our best man, and Charlie’s godfather,” Irene Salerno said.

Hirschey, 45, of Crystal Lake was driving the snowmobile when it crashed on Jan. 24, 2008. His blood-alcohol content was 0.08 percent, according to prosecutors.

Family members did not attend the hearing Monday in far northern Wisconsin, but “the Salerno family supported him 100 percent,” said Vilas County District Atty. Al Moustakis. “They specifically said they did not want him to serve jail time.”

Moustakis said Hirschey agreed to a drug and alcohol assessment, as well as a psychiatric assessment. His probation forbids him to use alcohol, the prosecutor said.

Nielsen also sentenced Hirschey to 100 hours of community service, according to officials.

Hirschey, who had grown up with Salerno in Crystal Lake, could have been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison and fined $100,000.

Defense attorney John Hyland said Hirschey accepted responsibility for the newsman’s death.

“He told the judge that he wished he could trade places with Randy,” said Hyland of Madison, Wis. “He thanked Randy’s family for their support.”

The two friends were riding on a snowmobile together during a winter getaway in northern Wisconsin when authorities say Hirschey, who was driving, crashed the rented, one-person machine into an embankment. It flew 46 feet before smashing into a pine tree.

Hirschey suffered broken ribs and a lacerated liver in the crash. Salerno was killed.

Irene Salerno said she stopped by the cemetery to tell her husband about the court appearance.

“It’s the outcome we wanted,” she said.

– Jeff Long