Schafnitz Will Serve Her Time Behind Bars, Not Under Estate Arrest

Tina Schafnitz, the Newport Beach socialite who sold cocaine to an undercover police officer, will serve her 10-month jail sentence in a county facility--not in her million-dollar home, her attorney said Wednesday.

Robert Newman, a Tustin attorney for the 38-year-old mother of two, said his client doesn’t qualify for house arrest. After she was sentenced Tuesday, Schafnitz told reporters that she hoped to serve her punishment in her ocean-view home.

But Newman said Municipal Judge Steven L. Perk had denied his request for home detention “because of the serious nature of the charges,” which also included one for possession of a weapon.

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Schafnitz had a handgun in her Mercedes-Benz and two clips of bullets when she sold 16 grams of cocaine for $1,000 to an undercover Tustin officer. She pleaded guilty to three felonies.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of nine years, eight months out of a possible maximum of 11 years, eight months. “We’re talking about a substantial amount of narcotics,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Nedza, who called Schafnitz’s “a state prison case.”

But first-time offenders caught selling small amounts of narcotics rarely receive such harsh punishment, said Robert Knox, an Orange County deputy public defender. Usually, he said, such a defendant is sentenced to six months in jail.

“She got more than what a usual first offender for sales would get,” Knox said. “But, of course, if she hadn’t had a good lawyer who was able to point to the judge her charity work, those types of things, she might have gotten more time.”

Perk, though, cited only Schafnitz’s remorse and lack of a criminal history in sentencing her.

Newman said his client plans to report to Orange County Jail next week. He said probation officials told him that there is a “good likelihood” that Schafnitz will serve her time at the James A. Musick Branch Jail, a low-security facility straddling Irvine and Lake Forest.

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Prisoners with a record like Schafnitz’s rarely qualify for home detention, according to officials.

John Robinson, the county’s chief deputy probation officer, said he could not comment on the Schafnitz case, but noted that drug dealers with firearms are generally denied house arrest.

“Someone dealing drugs can just as well do it out of their home as well as a street corner,” Robinson said. “Cases involving the dealing of narcotics and possession of firearms generally weigh against the house-arrest applicant.”

If Schafnitz, who is enrolled in a drug treatment program, gets time off for good behavior, she will serve six months and 19 days of her sentence behind bars, Newman said.

“It’s easy for people to Monday-morning quarterback and say this was a light sentence or a heavy sentence,” Newman said. “But my client is a very thankful woman today. The judge took everything into consideration and made a careful and wise ruling.”