Justice Robert Crowley may have laid down the law when sentencing Robert LaPointe to five years for his role in a fatal boat crash in Harrison in August 2007.

The problem is the law is too tepid.

Crowley cited LaPointe’s lack of honesty on the stand and his lack of remorse about the collision when sentencing LaPointe to a term of five years for his conviction on two counts of aggravated operating under the influence.

Not suspending 1 1?2 years of the sentence would be a great start to showing the state would no longer tolerate the recklessness that led to the crash or the disdain for the consequences that came after it.

So would have maximum sentences for both counts to be served consecutively. The jury that convicted LaPointe may have deadlocked on the manslaughter and reckless conduct charges against him, but its verdict was clear that he was drunk when he set out across Long Lake and sliced through Trott’s boat.

The verdict is accompanied by two accounts of bail violations where LaPointe was found to have alcohol in his Medway, Mass., home. It was never established that he was drinking while awaiting trial, but his bail conditions stipulated there was to be no alcohol in his home.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson mentioned the first offense when she argued against reducing LaPointe’s bail at his arraignment about a year ago. Despite her arguments, Crowley halved LaPointe’s bail to $50,000.

The second offense came in July and was why Anderson argued to revoke LaPointe’s bail after he was convicted Sept. 24. Crowley declined to do so.

For a man with no felony convictions, 31?2 years is a stiff sentence. After the arraignment last year, Anderson doubted even manslaughter convictions would get LaPointe more than about two years.

But stiff sentence is a relative term tied to a penal code that is too lenient. Robert LaPointe had no business driving his boat that night. His companion, Nicole Randall, testified that she saw him drink two beers shortly before heading out into open water. His blood alcohol level was .11 more than two hours after the crash.

Stephen Pierce, a state police chemist, extrapolated that LaPointe’s blood alcohol level was .15 at the time he hit Trott’s boat. The state legal limit is .08.

The manslaughter convictions would have brought sentences of up to 30 years for LaPointe. It is impossible to understand how the deaths caused by his irresponsibility and his arrogance dealing with the consequences rate what amounts to about 10 percent of those penalties.

In the aftermath of the crash, Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, introduced legislation to limit the size of boat engines on Long Lake, require owners to take safety courses and pay for extra game wardens to patrol Sebago and Long lakes. All the measures failed.

Sykes and other Lakes Region legislators should now lead the fight for harsher penalties, so that a maximum sentence for crimes like LaPointe’s will not seem to have minimal effects.

David Harry, editor