Brad Kitsu, who lost his job as Academy of the Pacific athletic director following his arrest last year on felony drug charges, received an outpouring of support from family, friends and former students at his sentencing hearing this morning.

Circuit Judge Richard Pollack cited the "dozens of letters" of support written on Kitsu's behalf in sentencing the defendant to five years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service.

Under the "conditional discharge" sentence imposed by Pollack, Kitsu is technically not guilty of a crime and all charges in the case will be erased if he stays out of trouble with the law for five years.

Kitsu and former University of Hawaii football player Wayne Roe Jr. were originally charged with commercial distribution of marijuana after drug agents seized 1 1/2 pounds of the drug from Kitsu's Nuuanu Avenue apartment in April 2007.

The charges against Kitsu were reduced after Roe took responsibility for the package of marijuana, which had been mailed by a Mainland acquaintance of Roe's to Kitsu's home.