NORTH ADAMS - For Jennifer Risch, justice has finally been done - at least as best as it can.

On Wednesday, parole was denied for the last time to 62-year-old John Maselli, the man convicted of a drunken driving accident that crippled and five years later ultimately killed Risch's sister, Barbra LaFrance.

The 2002 car accident that left LaFrance, a mother of two young children, paralyzed and only partially conscious until she died of her injuries in 2007, was one of a string of drunken driving offenses in several states by Maselli over the years. He was sentenced to seven to nine years in state prison, and Wednesday was his last chance to get out early.

Risch and LaFrance's family had successfully blocked Maselli's early release in the past, but Risch said Friday that she was fearful his deteriorating health would have allowed his early parole this time around. However, when she arrived at the parole hearing on Wednesday, she said, she found the parole board was not moved by his condition.

"I was told they took his medical condition into consideration, but it didn't change the fact that his criminal history goes back to 1964, and they still believe he could still be a menace to society," Risch said.

Maselli's history of drunken driving and other unlawful behavior goes back at least to the 1960s. In 1967, he was arrested for drunken driving but was not convicted of it until 1970, when he was punished with a $35 fine and just over a month of probation. In 1972,

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he was convicted for assaulting a police officer and was given a 60-day suspended sentence in county lockup. He got his second drunken-driving conviction in 1978 and paid a $62.50 fine. In 1999, he was again arrested and convicted of drunken driving. He was sentenced to one year in the Berkshire County House of Correction but only served 120 days. He was placed on probation until 2001 and had his license revoked for 60 days.

Maselli has 10 prior drunken-driving convictions in various states, including New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. When he was arrested after the April 2002 crash that injured LaFrance, he reportedly told arresting officers at the scene, "This is my 12th." He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17 - more than double the legal limit of 0.08.

The court held him on $500,000 cash bail before and during his trial because of the high number of drunken-driving arrests he had on his record. However, the court was only able to charge him with second-offense drunken driving because the statute of limitations had run out on two of his earlier convictions in Massachusetts.

Maselli arrived at Wednesday's parole hearing from Cedar Junction maximum-security prison in an ambulance, Risch said. She said he repeated almost the same statement to the parole board that he had last year: He explained that LaFrance and his daughter were born on the same day in the same hospital and he had seen her when she was brought into the nursery. He said he thinks about how he killed that baby he saw that day.

"He made that statement last year, and I think it's a horrible thing to say with my mother there because that should have been her day," Risch said.

Prior to last year's parole hearing, 1,000 people signed a petition asking for Maselli to remain incarcerated, and several people sent letters to the parole board asking he remain behind bars, including North Adams Commissioner of Public Safety E. John Morocco.

Risch still takes care of LaFrance's two children, now ages 17 and 19. While Maselli's loss of parole won't bring her sister back, she said, she's glad he will be punished to the fullest extent.

"I think that justice has officially been served," she said. "He was given seven to nine years. The best we could get was nine years. We got the nine years. His release date is Nov. 4 of next year.

" He's not going to live that long, though. He's 70 pounds - yellow -- he's dying, I think."