A Gloucester County woman who faced 12 years in prison after admitting she was driving drunk with kids in her vehicle when she slammed into a patrol car was instead sentenced to 10 years probation on Friday.

Angela Feaster, 38, of Sewell, pleaded guilty in November to charges of assault by auto and endangering the welfare of a child. She entered her guilty plea as jury selection was about to begin in her trial.

Feaster was driving on Route 40 in Franklin Township on the evening of Oct. 16, 2015, when she collided with a patrol car driven by Franklin Township Officer Clifford Trovillo.

Trovillo suffered a concussion, two broken wrists, an ankle fractured in two places, a hip fracture, back injuries and a broken tailbone.

The officer was never able to return to work because of his injuries.

Three of Feaster's kids were in her vehicle at the time and one suffered a bowel injury in the wreck.

Trovillo and his wife, Shannon, appeared in court Friday to offer victim impact statements and urge Superior Court Judge Robert P. Becker Jr. to hand down the maximum penalty. Shannon also read statements from the couple's children.

"This defendant deserves the maximum penalty that the law allows," Shannon said. "No one will every full understand what destruction she has caused to my family."

She had to give up her job to become a full-time caregiver for her husband. She described an initial week-long hospital stay, followed by multiple surgeries and rehabilitation.

"I had to care for him 24 hours a day when he couldn't care for himself," she said.

Those challenges continue, the couple explained.

Trovillo still sleeps in a recliner in his living room because he cannot lay flat on a bed. He cannot move some of his toes and suffers from nearly constant nerve pain and frequent headaches, he said. He also faces additional surgeries.

"We don't know what the future will bring," his wife said. "All I know for sure is Cliff will still be in pain and he will still have the scars. ... She sentenced him to a lifetime of suffering and pain."

Clifford Trovillo said the family has paid $150,000 in medical bills and other costs and another $80,000 in attorney fees.

"Now we have to get prepared to sell our house and move because of the financial hardships," he told the judge.

Feaster, who wept throughout the Trovillos' statements, claimed she was driving to help a friend involved in a domestic violence incident when the crash occurred.

In arguing for probation, defense attorney David Simon acknowledged that there was no excuse for Feaster's behavior on the night of the crash, but argued that her actions were motivated by a desire to help someone and by her own experience with domestic violence.

Feaster was beaten and left for dead in a parking lot 10 months before the crash, Simon said. Becker presided over the case against her attacker in that domestic violence incident.

While Feaster has suffered with depression and alcohol abuse for many years, she was managing her issues prior to that assault, Simon asserted, but fell into a downward spiral after the beating.

Immediately after her release from jail following her arrest in the crash, Feaster sought help for her alcoholism, Simon said, and continues to received outpatient treatment.

Gloucester County Assistant Prosecutor Staci Scheetz argued that Feaster's decision to jump in a vehicle to help her friend was not an impulsive, selfless act.

"She did take the time to think she should eat Chinese food to try to get her alcohol level down," the assistant prosecutor said, adding that she even searched online to determine if she should drive in her current condition.

"This was not an instantaneous event," Scheetz said. "The defendant had the opportunity to call 911 on behalf of her friend and first responders like Sgt. Trovillo would have gone to that scene as well."

Feaster's blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit on the night of the crash, Scheetz stated.

As she addressed the court, Feaster spoke about her work since the crash to turn her life around, including regaining custody of her kids and getting sober.

"I have not had a drink since the night of the accident and I have no intention of going backwards," she said. "I cannot apologize enough to Mr. Trovillo and his family. I take 100 percent responsibility for what I've done."

In settling on a sentence of probation, Becker spoke about Feaster's efforts to seek treatment and accept responsibility for her actions. He also noted her lack of a prior criminal record.

While the third-degree offenses she was sentenced on normally require a 3-5 year prison term, the court can choose to bypass incarceration in favor of probation in extraordinary circumstances, Becker explained.

"The record must reflect that the defendant was caught up in a maelstrom of engulfing circumstances," he said. In Feaster 's case, those circumstances didn't just include the fact that she was a domestic violence victim who suffered from mental health issues, but that she didn't receive appropriate help when she was a crime victim, he said.

Becker described what he saw as a failure of the criminal justice system to provide Feaster with appropriate victim services after she was beaten in early 2015.

"She was not recognized as needing services after her last domestic violence assault," Becker said. "The court basically finds that this systemic failure to provide needed services subsequent to her attack contributed to her descent into the alcoholism and severe depression."

As a result, Trovillo, his family and Feaster's kids are not the only victims, Becker stated.

The judge concluded that a prison term would only endanger the progress he feels Feaster and her kids have made since the crash.

"I find that imprisonment of the defendant would serve no legitimate purpose," he said. "Imprisonment would be making her children victims once again."

The Trovillo family expressed frustration with Becker's decision.

"The sentence was an injustice," Shannon Trovillo said after leaving the courtroom. "The judge had seen her as a victim, not what she did to my husband or her children. He was more worried about her domestic violence issues. We got no justice."

The prosector's office has the option to appeal the sentence. That issue is currently under review, a spokesman said.

"The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office's sympathies are with a 15-year law enforcement officer -- and his family -- who suffered career-ending injuries at the hands of a drunk driver while performing his duties," according to a statement from the office.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.