COEUR d’ALENE — The 10-year acquaintance between a First District judge and a Post Falls heroin dealer could be coming to a close.

At least that is the best-case scenario.

After meting out prison sentences of 27 years behind bars, District Judge John Mitchell on Tuesday ordered Jean-Luc D. LaVe, 27, to attend a prison rehabilitation program. The judge retained jurisdiction however, which will allow LaVe to attend a one-year prison drug program before being placed on probation. Once he returns, LaVe will attend either a drug court or mental health court program in a last-ditch effort to tear him away from a life of drugs.

If he screws up, the judge said he would order imposition of the prison terms.

“I have some difficulty giving up on you,” Mitchell said. “I think it’s worth giving this a shot.”

LaVe was arrested April 14 at Motel 6 in Coeur d’Alene where police say he was delivering heroin to a sockless man sitting after midnight in a motel breezeway. LaVe was charged with one felony count of trafficking heroin, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

LaVe, who was on felony probation, was driving the 1990 Cherokee on his way to meet the sockless man, police said. A police K9 sniffed the vehicle and alerted for the possession of narcotics, according to police. Police allegedly found 2.7 grams of heroin, a trace of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a cloth bag stuffed into the groin area of LaVe’s underwear during the body search.

LaVe acknowledged he had picked up the heroin from a supplier in Spokane and was on his way to deliver it to the sockless man, according to a police report in court records.

The probation violation and a grand theft conviction from earlier unrelated incidents were combined with the trafficking conviction at Tuesday’s sentencing,

Mitchell sentenced LaVe to prison terms of five years fixed and 10 years indeterminate on the probation violation stemming from a previous drug conviction, five years fixed and two years indeterminate for grand theft and two years fixed and three years indeterminate for trafficking heroin.

Mitchell cautioned LaVe to immerse himself in rehabilitation, to face the demons of his childhood and come to terms with his past, or rehabilitation likely will not stick.

“My guess is your not addressing those issues has us knowing each other for the better part of a decade,” he said.