Wichita ? A former emergency room doctor serving a jail sentence for harassing and stalking patients can finish out his term at home, a judge ruled.

Bernard Megaffin, who lost his license to practice medicine, was sentenced in May 2000 to 12 years in prison on felony stalking charges. Prosecutors said most of his victims were single mothers who had been treated by Megaffin.

He was released in May after serving 30 months in prison and was moved to Sedgwick County Jail to serve a 9 1/2-year sentence for telephone harassment. He has about six years left to serve on that sentence.

But District Judge Karl Friedel granted a conditional release Friday to allow Megaffin to serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest.

Megaffin’s attorney, Mark Sevart, requested the house arrest, noting Sedgwick County Jail has no treatment available for sex offenders.

“There is no question in my mind but that the victims and the public in general will be best served if we can assist Mr. Megaffin in getting treatment, and in fact the jail does not have resources to provide any kind of program for the defendant,” Friedel said.

Megaffin also was charged with committing similar crimes in Butler, Sumner and Harper counties. He moved to Kansas after serving about 30 months in a state prison in Ohio for a 1987 sexual battery conviction