BENNINGTON – Almost three years after he entered into a plea arrangement that set off a national controversy, Andrew C. James, a convicted sex offender, may be facing real jail time within the next month.

James, 40, of Manchester, pleaded guilty in January 2007 to a felony charge of sexual assault on a person younger than 10 and received a sentence of 30 months to five years. The sentence was suspended, however, and James was placed on probation.

Now, James is being held in the Rutland jail.

On Monday, Christina Rainville, Bennington County's chief deputy state's attorney, said she plans to ask on Wednesday that James' probation be revoked and he be sent to prison to serve his underlying sentence.

Probation Officer David Jankowski made the same recommendation in the probation violation complaint he filed.

Public Defender Frederick Bragdon said James is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday, so Bragdon and prosecutors could report to Judge David Suntag on whether an agreement had been reached. If there is no agreement, the probation violation complaint will be heard on Dec. 2.

James was charged Thursday with violating the conditions of his probation. He is also scheduled to be arraigned on a felony charge of prescription fraud on Nov. 24. He is in jail without bail.

Police said James altered a prescription he had received for pain medication from 56 pills to 156 pills on Oct. 28 and attempted to fill the altered prescription at the Bennington CVS Pharmacy.

In January 2007, prosecutors said they had entered into a plea arrangement with James because the only witness was a 4-year-old child who they believed would not make a good witness in a criminal trial. While he received no jail time, the state was able to place James under supervision and add him to the Vermont sex offender registry.

The case became a hot-button issue after commentator Bill O'Reilly spoke about it on his own cable television show and on Oprah Winfrey's nationally syndicated talk show.

O'Reilly sent staff members to Bennington to confront Bennington District Court Judge David Howard, who presided over the case, and others. On his show, O'Reilly called Howard's ruling in the James' case an "atrocity."

While there have been no charges of sexually based crimes against James since his conviction in January 2007, he pleaded guilty to violating his probation in October 2008 by having alcohol in his home. James was allowed to stay on probation but was ordered to serve five days on a work crew for the violation.

At the time, officers with the Department of Corrections suggested that James remain on probation as it had been established the previous year. Now the state is asking for harsher measures.

"This criminal behavior is a serious violation that cannot be tolerated and Mr. James now requires a more intensive level of supervision," Jankowski said in his complaint.

In an affidavit, Bennington Police Detective Peter Urbanowicz said he had been contacted by a doctor's office on Wednesday around 11:20 a.m.

A woman who worked for the doctor said she had been contacted by an employee of CVS Pharmacy in Bennington who said James had presented a prescription for 156 units of a painkiller that contains an opioid drug called propoxyphene.

Urbanowicz said he and two other police officers went to the CVS where they were given the prescription form.

"It was obvious that the prescription had been altered from 56 doses to 156 doses (the ink on the number 1 was a different shade than the other ink on the prescription)," Urbanowicz wrote.

Police waited at the CVS because they believed James might return to pick up the prescription but after about 45 minutes, Urbanowicz called James who agreed to meet police at the drug store.

In the affidavit, Urbanowicz said James "admitted that he had made a mistake and wondered if we could rip the prescription up, throw it away and forget it."

patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com