By Joe Gerrety
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com

Nicole M. Fox asked Judge Don Johnson for early release from prison Thursday, saying she has done everything she can to improve herself while incarcerated for the past 11 months.

But after hearing testimony from victims and family members, Johnson summarily denied Fox's request.

She'll likely spend another four years in prison for the Sept. 2, 2004, drunken driving crash that maimed motorcyclists Jerome E. Raiff, 46, and Christopher E. Harmon, 21, for life.

Fox, 22, said she has taken advantage of every educational and Bible study opportunity available at the Rockville Correctional Facility, and she tutors other inmates.

But there are long waiting lists for the programs that will help her overcome her alcohol addiction.

She asked to be released to Home with Hope, a residential substance abuse recovery program, so she could join treatment programs at her church and go to schools to talk about the dangers of alcohol abuse and drunken driving.

"I want to be able to better restore myself," she said.

Chris Harmon, who remains in what his mother, Cynthia Harmon, described as a "waking coma," sat motionless in a reclining wheelchair in the courtroom as his mother described his complete disability.

She said she and her husband's income dropped by 70 percent when they and their daughter moved to Lafayette from Massachusetts to care for Chris. He was a soldier on leave from his base in Kentucky when the crash occurred.

Fox had a blood-alcohol content nearly three times the legal limit when she drove left of center on County Road 350 South into the path of four oncoming motorcyclists.

She had been released on her own recognizance 12 days earlier after an arrest on suspicion of drunken driving, but her license had not yet been suspended.

Cynthia Harmon said prison is the best place for Fox.

"She will be able to get help in a safe, controlled environment -- help she didn't get from her therapist, her family or her friends," Cynthia Harmon said.

Raiff, a former weightlifter who lost part of his left arm and left leg and now uses a wheelchair, sarcastically told the court he'd like a break, too.

"Judge, I'm here for a sentence modification. I want out of my chair," he said.