Rosie O’Donnell’s Prison Ordeal!

Rosies prison ordeal ne short

Rosie O’Donnell got even with the heroin dealer who hooked up with her runaway 17-year-old daughter.

In a world exclusive interview with The National ENQUIRER from behind bars, Steven Sheerer, 25, confirmed he could face five years in jail if Chelsea’s furious TV star mother gets her wish.

“I know that,” Sheerer told The ENQUIRER Aug. 27 at the Ocean County, N.J., jail, where he was being held on $40,000 bail after he was arrested for obscenity and endangering the welfare of a minor.

The ENQUIRER learned that authorities had no intentions of filing charges against Sheerer. That was, until the spitting-mad star, 53, started badgering the local cops!

Seven days after Rosie said her adopted daughter – who suffers from mental illness and requires medication – had gone missing from their Nyack, N.Y., home, the teen was found safe inside Sheerer’s house, where he lives with his parents and a sibling.

While Sheerer initially denied cops access to her, Chelsea was found hiding in a windowless attic with her therapy dog, a black terrier named Bear.

But it wasn’t until three days after her recovery that he was taken into custody!

“Rosie found a nude picture of him on Chelsea’s cellphone and started calling Barnegat police insisting that they file charges,” a law enforcement source confided to The ENQUIRER.

“Everybody thought it was over, then Rosie really started pushing the issue.”

If convicted, Sheerer could land in the slammer for five years. He was previously arrested on heroin dealing and child endangerment and jailed in 2013.

The law enforcement insider told The ENQUIRER it appears Sheerer and Chelsea were not engaged in any sort of drug activity. Though the age of sexual consent in New Jersey is 16, it is illegal for an adult to send a nude picture to anyone under the age of 18.

Chelsea, who was 17 when she ran off, turned 18 Aug. 24.

Sheerer’s lawyer, Robert Tarver, told The ENQUIRER he intends to show the court that Chelsea told his client she was over 18.

Their relationship, which began on the social site Tinder, went on for several weeks before she boarded a bus in New York to stay with him in Barnegat Township, N.J.

“I believe she had a trusting relationship with Steven,” he told The ENQUIRER. “The fact of the matter is that he has been portrayed as a predator and going after children, but nothing could be further from the truth. If not for the fact that this were Rosie O’Donnell, he probably would not even be charged.”

A bail reduction hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4.

“While Sheerer may get bail, he’s still facing five years in prison, thanks to Rosie,” said another source. “She got her revenge – and that’ll show him for messing with her kid!”