RESENTENCING FOR SNOHOMISH COUNTY SHERIFF'S BROTHER

Drug Offender Denied Early Release Through Alternative Program

EVERETT -- The brother of Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart has been
resentenced to three years in prison for a drug conviction, but he'll serve
about a year longer than he'd expected.

When Ronald Bart, 47, was originally sentenced in February 2000, he was
placed in the Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative program.

That program, for non-violent offenses involving small amounts of drugs,
provides for shorter prison terms and mandatory treatment.

But an appellate-court ruling late last year rejected that option for Bart
and numerous other offenders whose crimes were committed before the state
law creating the program took effect.

Bart was resentenced Tuesday.

He was arrested in July 1999 after buying cocaine from a supplier and
delivering it to an undercover sheriff's deputy. He pleaded guilty to
cocaine delivery and faced three to four years under state sentencing
guidelines.

Deputy prosecutor John Adcock recommended a three-year sentence, and
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight imposed the penalty
under the alternative program, which would have involved early release into
a treatment program.

Adcock stuck to his three-year recommendation Tuesday. But there will be no
early release.

"Prison has been tough, but I've been OK," Bart told the judge.