BRIEF: Senator Galluccio Sentenced to Year in Prison

Massachusetts State Senator Anthony D. Galluccio, who has attributed failed breathalyzer tests to his toothpaste, was sentenced Monday to one year in jail for violating his probation in a hit-and-run accident.

After a day of testimony, Cambridge District Court Judge Matthew J. Nestor said he was convinced that Galluccio had been drinking when he tested positive for alcohol on Dec. 21. Galluccio, who was led from the court in handcuffs, will serve his term in the Middlesex House of Correction, the Boston Globe reported.

Galluccio, who pleaded guilty last month to leaving the scene of an October accident that caused minor injuries to two individuals, was ordered to abstain from alcohol and to submit to alcohol testing as part of his probation. But he failed a series of breathalyzer tests just three days after his guilty plea.

Galluccio testified on Monday that he had showered and brushed his teeth twice before the tests, stating that he had not ingested alcohol that morning, according to the Globe. Galluccio has publicly attributed the results of the tests to his use of two brands of toothpaste—Colgate Total Whitening and Sensodyne—that contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol.

"I had no idea what caused that reading,'' Galluccio testified. "All I know is that I had not ingested alcohol.''

Senate President Therese Murray—who had earlier forced Galluccio to resign as chair of the Higher Education Committee and a member of six other committees, according to the Globe—did not publicly ask Galluccio to resign from the Senate in light of Monday’s sentence. In a short statement, Murray said the Senate will discuss its response to the situation when it meets on Wednesday.

Galluccio, who has represented Cambridge and several neighboring towns in the Massachusetts Senate since 2007, has been convicted of driving under the influence twice before, according to the Globe, but refused to state whether he had been drinking before the October hit-and-run incident.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.