Diana Hoffman is currently at a Trenton halfway house and is eligible for parole late next year.
TRENTON -- An appeals court on Tuesday denied an appeal for an Atlantic County woman who twice led police officers on high-speed pursuits - one that indirectly led to a New Jersey State Police's trooper's death.
Hoffman, prison photo. Diana Hoffman, 36, of Hammonton, is serving a combined 15 years in prison for two separate eluding cases days apart in June 2010.
The first was in Burlington County, and she successfully evaded police. Four days later, on the Garden State Parkway in Ocean County, she led police on another pursuit.
Officers found her and her stopped car on Interstate 195 in Howell, Monmouth County, and she made up a story about fearing a gunman in her car who had fled on foot in the area.
Trooper Marc K. Castellano was among the searchers for the non-existent offender and was struck by a passing car. He died hours later at a local hospital.
Castellano was 29 when he died and the married father of two preschool children.
Hoffman pleaded guilty in both cases to eluding police and causing a false public alarm in the Monmouth County case. She was sentenced in 2011.
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Hoffman appealed the Monmouth County case in 2012, and an appeals court was not swayed by her arguments about her sentence, the Tuesday decision notes.
She did not directly appeal the Burlington case, but later filed a post-conviction relief (PCR) appeal. Hoffman's lawyers had again challenged the plea agreement and sentencing advice she got from her trial lawyer.
A PCR appeal is handled by the trial judge, who denied it, as well as Hoffman's request for an evidentiary hearing.
A state appeals court affirmed that decision Tuesday, finding no merit in the arguments, the decision says.
Hoffman is currently in the Albert M. "Bo" Robinson Assessment & Treatment Center in Trenton, a halfway house that contracts with the state prison system.
She is eligible for parole in December 2018, records show.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.