Former state Rep. Jeff Habay has lost his job, his pension and the trust of the public after his two corruption convictions.

He has been punished enough, Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said yesterday, that he does not need to return to jail.

Judge Manning ruled yesterday that Mr. Habay, 42, of Shaler serve the remaining four months of his concurrent sentences in a halfway house. But he could end up serving it under house arrest if Judge Lester G. Nauhaus, who also convicted Mr. Habay, agrees to it, Judge Manning said.

Judge Nauhaus sentenced him to four to eight months in jail after Mr. Habay's April 2007 no-contest plea to charges of false statements to police that he had received anthrax in the mail from a political opponent.

In a 2005 conviction on charges of forcing staffers to do campaign work on state time, Mr. Habay was sentenced by Judge Manning to six to 12 months in jail.

After spending a week in Allegheny County Jail in 2006, Mr. Habay served two months of his sentence in a halfway house, but was confined to house arrest with electronic monitoring during his appeals, time that did not count against his sentence. The state Supreme Court on July 2 declined to hear Mr. Habay's appeal of the 2005 conviction, and Mr. Habay was scheduled to report to jail Aug. 1.

"What kind of message does it send that his county sentence has for two years now gone through an appellate process to avoid serving the sentence," Anthony Krastek, senior deputy attorney general, asked Judge Manning during the hearing.

Mr. Habay had threatened to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but his attorney, Ken Snarey, said yesterday he didn't think that would happen, "in light of the compassion displayed on the bench today."

In court, Mr. Habay said he remains unemployed -- residents of the halfway house are let out during the day for work -- but being a stay-at-home father takes up his time.

Mr. Habay's 3-year-old son, Logan, has autism, and arranging doctors' visits and in-home therapy is time-consuming, he said. Mr. Snarey said they would work with the halfway house to make arrangements for when Mr. Habay could leave to tend to his son while his wife is at work.

Mr. Habay told Judge Manning that he has kept strictly to his probation requirements and doesn't miss an appointment.

"I am the type of individual that showed up for every session day in the House for 11 years," he said.

In announcing his lenient stance, Judge Manning talked about how Mr. Habay's drawn-out legal saga seems to have had little effect on other Harrisburg legislators. Less than two weeks ago, former state Rep. Mike Veon and current Rep. Sean Ramaley -- as well as 10 current and former staffers -- had charges filed against them for using public money to fund campaign work.

"It would be hard for me to opine that there's been a deterrence," Judge Manning said. "Apparently, the message went unheeded."