LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A former sheriff’s deputy was sentenced on Monday to six months in the county jail for trafficking in prescription pills.
Eric Van Mendonca, 43, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years' probation, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe.
In October Mendonca reached an agreement with the District Attorney's Office in which he pleaded no contest to two counts of possession of hydrocodone for purpose of sale, as Lake County News has reported.
Mendonca's June arrest in the case was the result of a Federal Bureau of Investigation Safe Streets Task Force investigation.
Investigators found that Mendonca had accumulated approximately 17,540 prescription pills between March 2009 and this past February, using multiple prescriptions and “doc shopping” in order to obtain the pills.
Mendonca formerly served as a Lake County Sheriff's deputy, leaving the agency about a decade ago. He also previously was a Petaluma Police officer.
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