FORMER SUBWAY OWNER BACK IN COURT
By Mike Donoghue
BURLINGTON – A former Franklin County businessman is due to return to federal court on Monday to continue a sentencing hearing that got cut short earlier this month after he admitted that he had been drinking earlier that day in violation of the judge’s order.
Luc Patrice Quirion, 57, of Newport is facing possible revocation of the supervised release order imposed on him in April in U.S. District Court. He was charged with making multiple false statements in 2012 on a mandated medical certificate for people obtaining a pilot license, records show.
Quirion subsequently crashed his small single-engine Piper aircraft at the Newport State Airport in Coventry about 12:45 p.m. June 7, 2014. Witnesses reported Quirion had been drinking alcohol before the crash, court and investigative records show.
Senior Federal Judge William K. Sessions sentenced Quirion on April 25 to 17 days in prison for filing the false statements. The sentence was equal to the time spent in jail when Quirion was charged with violating his per-trial release conditions by drinking. That new drinking charge came from another arrest for driving while under the influence charge in Newport, records show.
During the sentencing hearing Sessions said it appeared Quirion had gotten the message he needed to stop drinking. Quirion broke down and sobbed while explaining the impact his lifetime battle with alcohol has caused him, his family and community. Quirion turned to apologize to his wife, who was seated in the back of the court. He noted the emotional and financial drain it has been on her.
“Alcohol killed my father, my brother and I want to go home to my wife and grandchildren. It brought me to my knees,” Quirion told Session at the time. Sessions also imposed $3,600 in fines and court costs during the April hearing.
But within two months the U.S. Probation Office sought to revoke Quirion’s supervised release because he continued to drink, records show.
When Quirion showed up in court on July 5 to face the revocation charge the judge questioned Quirion’s demeanor. The judge asked him if he had consumed any alcohol. Quirion admitted drinking earlier in the day. Sessions was unimpressed and ordered him jailed. Now after 20 days behind bars, the sentencing hearing will continue Monday afternoon in Burlington and Quirion could learn his fate.
Quirion has been involved in the food business in Northern Vermont, including owning three Subway sandwich shops, but sold one in Enosburgh earlier this year.
Quirion has had an ongoing battle with the bottle. Besides the plane crash and the recent arrest on the DUI charge in Newport this spring, he has had other run-ins with the law, including at least three other DUI arrests before June 2012.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office maintains Quirion lied on 3 answers on the medical form in June 2012 needed to become a pilot: He denied his 3 past arrests for DUI in Florida, New Hampshire and Vermont, that Quirion was not dependent on or abused alcohol and that when Quirion signed the form he was not on medications, records show. The false answers helped him to obtain a medical form that allowed him to get a pilot license.
When Sessions ordered Quirion jailed on July 5 for his latest drinking episode, the judge ruled there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Quirion violated his conditions of supervised release. Sessions also said there were no conditions or combination of conditions to ensure Quirion would not continue to violate the conditions “and endanger the safety of another person or the community.”
Quirion remains at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans pending that hearing.
