Levi Johnston’s mother leaves jail for house arrest

Sherry Johnston is back in her Wasilla home after a judge agreed to let her serve her three-year sentence with an ankle-monitoring device, according to her attorney. Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the father of former Gov. Sarah Palin’s grandson, Tripp.

She was sentenced last month to jail, to be followed by three years’ probation, for dealing the prescription painkiller OxyContin. She had been jailed at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, Alaska, since August.

Johnston returned to her home Monday, attorney Rex Butler said.

At Hiland, Johnston fielded requests from other inmates for Levi’s autograph and “posters of his Playgirl shoot,” Butler said. “People were jealous of what her son is doing. Some people said, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t let him do something like Playgirl.’ ”

Sherry Johnston is under “intensive monitoring,” Butler said. He said that state corrections officers were responsible for enforcing her house arrest, which included the condition that she be near a land phone line at all times except for four hours a week, when she can leave home.