The former president of Sierra Nevada College has been sentenced in Washoe District Court to three years in a diversion program for drug and alcohol abuse.
James Lee Ash Jr., 59, also was ordered on Tuesday by Washoe District Judge Janet Berry to refrain from holding a mentoring position with anybody under 21.
He received the sentence in exchange for his guilty plea in January. He could have faced up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for the felony county of possession of a controlled substance.
A second felony charge of maintaining a place where a drug could be used or given away was dropped.
Ash was president of the Incline Village college for nearly a year but left his post after his arrest July 9 at a hotel in Sparks.
Police found methamphetamine and marijuana in a room registered to Ash and 18-year-old Travis Jay Lewis.
Lewis pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawful supplying or giving away a controlled substance.
