A former national sheriff of the year has been arrested in Colorado on suspicion of attempting to deal drugs in exchange for sex, KUSA TV reports.

Patrick Sullivan, 68, who was the National Sheriff's Association's "Sheriff of the Year" in 2001, was being held on $250,000 bail in the Arapahoe County jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. KUSA says he is being kept in a jail cell away from other inmates.

Update at 1:51 p.m. ET: The judge doubled Sullivan's bond to $500,000 this morning. KUSA's Jennifer Ryan reports that Sullivan, who will be formally charged on Dec. 5, says that a handcuffed Sullivan entered the courtroom wearing an orange jumpsuit and made little eye contact with anyone but the judge. The judge also issued a protection order against the former sheriff, preventing him from possessing a firearm or intimidating witnesses, KUSA reports.

Original post: Sullivan was sheriff of the Denver-area county from 1984 until 2002, when he retired.

The Denver Post, quoting current Sheriff Grayson Robinson, says Sullivan was arrested by a drug task-force team that was "visually monitoring" the alleged delivery by Sullivan of methamphetamine to a person in Aurora, Colo., while seeking sex in return.

Sullivan faces a charge of unlawful distribution, manufacturing, dispensing or sale of a controlled substance, the sheriff's office said, according to the Post. The charge carries a maximum punishment of six years in prison.

Robinson calls the incident "a sad day," adding, "This shows that no one is above the law, particularly a current or a former peace officer."