The next pre-trial hearing in the case of a Harvard undergraduate charged with possession of drugs with intent to distribute was set yesterday in Cambridge District Court, with the defendant noticeably absent.

Robert C. Schaffer ’05—who police say they found in his dorm with 16 bags of psilocybin mushrooms—will elect whether to face trial by jury or judge in a compliance and election hearing slated for Jan. 5.

The defendant was indicted March 18 for possession of psilocybin and marijuana, with intent to distribute both. Because Schaffer’s room in the Mather House tower was less than 1,000 feet from the Martin Luther King Jr. School on Putnam Avenue, he also faces charges of drug violations within a school zone.

Although possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute within a school zone carries a minimum mandatory sentence of two years, Middlesex District Attorney Spokeswoman Emily J. LaGrassa said sentences differ on a case-by-case basis.

“It varies—depends on prior record, whether he pleads guilty or not,” LaGrassa said. “If he were to plea out, that [minimum] can be broken down.”

If convicted on all three charges, Schaffer faces a maximum sentence of 22 years in prison. But LaGrassa said incarceration is not a given.

“If the defendant is an addict, treatment may be more appropriate,” said LaGrassa.

Schaffer, who withdrew from class in March 2003, was absent from yesterday’s proceedings. When asked why his client was not in court yesterday, Schaffer’s attorney, Robert K. Leroy, replied with a grin, “I’m not comfortable talking about that.”

Police arrived at Schaffer’s room on the evening of March 17 in response to complaints that the smell of marijuana permeated the 12th floor hallway, Harvard University Police Department Spokesman Steven G. Catalano told The Crimson last March.

Once the officers traced the smell to Schaffer’s room, the undergraduate allowed police to enter and opened his desk drawer to hand them what appeared to be a bag of marijuana, according to the incident report filed by HUPD Officer Thomas F. Karns Jr.

Upon searching the room, HUPD confiscated 45 clear plastic bags containing herb-like substances which the report described as marijuana and psilocybin; a blue purse holding “an off-white waxy substance that was in flakes and a solid yellow chunk of an unknown substance”; a pipe; a 200-gram weight and scale; a large black hunting knife and a small box of rolling papers.

“It was clear from the way the drugs were packaged that it was possession with the intent to distribute,” Catalano said at the time.

—Staff writer Robin M. Peguero can be reached at peguero@fas.harvard.edu.