A defense lawyer argued Friday that Karetny wanted to start serving his mandated 1,000 hours of community service. He plans to run a nonprofit restaurant school in West Philadelphia for disadvantaged youths.
The three-year program will be funded in part with $407,000 from Campbell Soup Co. heiress Dorrance H. "Dodo" Hamilton, who had been a business partner of Karetny.
"For $407,000, they could have fixed the damn pier, and I wouldn't have lost my daughter," said Clyde Toole, the father of 25-year-old DeAnn White, who was killed along with two co-workers on May 18, 2000.
Prosecutors had sought prison time on the involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment plea and strongly objected to Karetny's release from the 9- to 18-month house-arrest term.
But defense lawyer Frank DeSimone argued that the release was appropriate.
"They didn't get a conviction. It was a 10-week jury trial," said DeSimone, whose client pleaded guilty to three counts of involuntary homicide and 43 counts of reckless endangerment after a jury deadlocked in 2006. "We wrapped this up to help everybody."
White died along with Jean Marie Ferraro, 27, and Monica Rodriguez, 21, co-workers at the New Jersey State Aquarium across the river in Camden, N.J. The women were celebrating White's upcoming birthday and Rodriguez's first day on the job.
Pier 34 owner Michael Asbell, 65, of Merion, is serving 11 to 22 months of house arrest after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment counts, plus felony charges of risking a catastrophe and criminal conspiracy.
He is also expected to seek release soon from Common Pleas Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper.
Prosecutors charged that the pier had been deteriorating for years and that an inspector had warned of an imminent collapse the morning of the disaster.
Related civil suits were settled for $29.6 million.
