Ex-KFAN host goes back to the workhouse

[sandmannd]

Former KFAN Radio personality Jeff Dubay will spend another 87 days in the Ramsey County workhouse after admitting he used cocaine -- again -- in May.

Dubay wore an orange jail-issued jumpsuit Tuesday morning when he appeared before District Judge Joanne Smith. It was his second probation violation and the fourth time he has run afoul of the law and the court system since his initial arrest in the fall of 2008 for drug possession.

Prosecutor Laura Rosenthal and probation officer Laurie Theissen told the judge that a urine test by Dubay on April 12 came back positive for cocaine. On May 20, he did not submit to another urine test but instead admitted to using cocaine on May 17-18.

Dubay was arrested Oct. 15, 2008, in Maplewood. While being pursued by police, he threw a plastic bag out of his car that contained a small amount of cocaine. He was fired from KFAN shortly thereafter. He had been co-host of the midday show with Paul Allen for 10 years.

He was charged with fifth-degree drug possession, a felony, and entered a yearlong diversion program that could have ended with the charge being dismissed if he did community service and had no run-ins with the law. He flunked out of that program. He then was offered to participate in Substance Abuse Court, but flunked out of that, too.

At a hearing last January, the judge could have imposed a prison sentence of a year and a day for Dubay's first probation violation. Instead, he was ordered to serve the remaining 88 days of a 180-day sentence and another 90-day sentence.

On Tuesday, Smith noted that the current 90-day sentence -- with credit for three days he has already served -- will give him as much custody credit as he would have had if he had served the year and a day sentence.

When the current sentence is done, Dubay will no longer be on supervised probation.

Defense attorney Mark Kelly told the judge that Dubay attends AA meetings twice a day and self-reported his slip-up on April 12.

Smith noted that he looked in better physical shape than the last time he appeared in court, "so I hope something of a positive nature is going on."