AB109er will return to prison

A Rail Road Flat man released to the county under the state’s “public safety realignment” has pleaded no contest to a charge of possession of drugs packaged for sale.

Jakob Aaron Main, 33, had been scheduled to face trial June 27. Under the plea agreement Monday, he’ll avoid spending as many as 10 years in state prison.

Details of the agreement were not available Wednesday. But an earlier offer from prosecutors would have limited Main’s sentence to no more than five years in prison.

County probation officers and Calaveras County Sheriff’s narcotics agents on March 27 searched Main’s residence on the 100 block of Ridge Road.

They found more than 6 grams of methamphetamine packaged for sale and a hypodermic needle, according to a Sheriff’s Office statement.

Main served a year in state prison after he was convicted of evading police in a Dec. 3, 2010, chase. He also allegedly failed to abide by the terms of his post-release community supervision under Assembly Bill 109, triggering a search ordered by the county Probation Department and done in conjunction with the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department.

The AB 109 realignment took effect last year, in response to a federal court order to reduce California’s prison overcrowding. Offenders deemed “non-serious, non-sexual, and non-violent” are released on community supervision to county probation departments rather than state parole.

Main remains in custody at the Calaveras County Jail and is not eligible for bail because of his parole violation hold. He is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. July 16 in Department 1 of the Calaveras County Superior Court.