A North Laurel man was given probation and a suspended prison term as part of a plea agreement yesterday on charges that he sexually abused two girls.
Howard Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney reluctantly went along with the plea agreement for a 33-year-old man, saying a trial may be too painful for the victims, ages 5 and 6.
"Ordinarily, the court would not accept a sentence in this range in a case of this nature," Judge Sweeney said.
Assistant State's Attorney Shirley Ripley said police investigators and the victims' family approved of the plea agreement, which she worked out with Assistant Public Defender Alice Clark.
Ms. Ripley noted, however, that the court's sentencing guidelines for the case recommended a prison sentence of between one and eight years.
The defendant entered what is called an Alford plea for two counts of child abuse, which means he did not admit guilt but acknowledged the prosecution has enough evidence to convict him of the charges. The Sun is not identifying the man to protect the victims' identity.
The victims were 4 and 5 at the time of the abuse.
The girls reported to detectives and officials at the county Department of Social Services in January 1994 that the defendant had forced them to perform sex acts.
In the plea agreement, the man was sentenced to two years in prison, with all but 63 days of the term suspended. He then was given a 63-day credit for jail time he already had served.
Judge Sweeney ordered him to complete five years of probation and counseling.
The judge also prohibited him from having any contact with the victims.
In addition, the defendant is not to have any unsupervised contact with children.
But Ms. Clark said she would file court papers asking Judge Sweeney to modify the sentence so that the defendant could have unsupervised visits with his 8-month-old son.