A man who served as a top aide to former Gov. Mike Easley is back in North Carolina after serving several months of his tax evasion sentence at a Florida prison.
The federal Bureau of Prisons said Monday records show Ruffin Poole is living at a halfway house in the Raleigh area.
Poole is a native of Kinston.
Bureau spokesman Chris Burke said Poole returned three weeks ago after being at a minimum-security prison in Pensacola, Fla., since July. Poole is projected to leave the prison system in early June but will have two years of supervised release.
The 40-year-old Poole received a one-year and one-day sentence for pleading guilty before his trial was to begin on public corruption-related charges. Poole's case stemmed from an investigation of Easley.
Poole's attorney didn't return a phone message Monday.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
