SHERIFF'S BROTHER TO SERVE JAIL TIME

Three-Year Sentence Given On Charges Of Drug Trafficking

The brother of Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart will serve about a
year longer behind bars than originally thought after an appeals
court ruled he is ineligible for a reduced sentence on
drug-trafficking charges.

Ronald Bart, 47, was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday
during a brief hearing before Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight.

The hearing was necessary in the wake of a state Appeals Court
decision late last year that barred Bart and other defendants around
the state from benefiting from a sentencing option that focused less
on punishment and more on treatment.

Knight in February 2000 had sentenced Bart under the Drug Offender
Sentencing Alternative. Approved by state lawmakers in 1999, the law
allows people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses involving small
amounts of drugs to receive shorter than usual prison terms and
mandatory treatment.

A problem arose because Bart and others received the sentence even
though their crimes occurred before the law went into effect.

Bart was arrested in July 1999 after he offered to act as the
middleman in a cocaine deal. The deal was broken up by an undercover
detective assigned to the Snohomish Regional Narcotics Task Force. He
pleaded guilty to cocaine delivery, and under state sentencing
guidelines faced up to four years behind bars.

Deputy prosecutor John Adcock had recommended earlier that Bart
receive a three-year sentence. He stuck to that recommendation
Tuesday.

Knight told Bart there were no legal grounds for him to depart from a
standard-range sentence. The judge said he was pleased, however, that
the defendant appeared to have been taking advantage of
drug-treatment programs that were made available to him under the
original sentence.

Bart thanked the judge.

"Prison has been tough, but I've been OK," he said. "I just don't
want to put myself in this situation again."

In addition to his drug conviction, Ronald Bart had served time for
theft in King County.

Sheriff Rick Bart was not in the courtroom Tuesday. He had no
comment, spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.

When his brother was first charged, Rick Bart released a prepared
statement praising detectives for their work and suggesting that his
brother's legal troubles "should serve as an example of how illegal
drugs affect us all. Nobody is immune from their devastation."