Micah Christy

A Butler man will be released to an inpatient drug rehabilitation program after a bond modification hearing Friday in Butler County Court.

Micah J. Christy, 32, will be held in Butler County Prison until a bed is available in an inpatient drug treatment program, after President Judge Thomas Doerr granted his bond modification request.

If Christy is unsuccessful in completing the program or is discharged, he will be immediately detained and returned to the county jail. But if he does complete the program, he will be discharged from the inpatient facility and placed on pretrial supervision pending the outcome of his cases.

His attorney, assistant public defender Charles Nedz, said Christy previously completed a 14-day program in another inpatient treatment program, and spent eight days in a halfway house before being discharged for “violating some internal rule.”

The programs are willing to take him back, he said.

Assistant district attorney Terri Schultz did not object to the motion, saying that “Mr. Christy does need the help.”

Christy was charged with two counts of felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance after an incident at his home in the 300 block of West New Castle Street, where the Butler County Drug Task Force said Christy allegedly sold a police informant 10 stamp bags of heroin Aug. 16.

Police then served a search warrant on the home Sept. 28. Inside a bedroom was Christy's live-in girlfriend and the couple's 6-year-old daughter, who authorities say was within arm's reach of uncapped syringes and empty bags of suspected heroin. The drug materials were mixed in with children's clothing in the top dresser drawer, police said.

Christy was charged with misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child and possession of drug paraphernalia in that case.