Suspect enters plea at trial

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man accused of engaging in lewd conduct with a teenager pleaded guilty to a reduced charge on the second day of his trial in 1st District Court.

Dean Duane Stevens Jr. entered an Alford plea to charge of aggravated assault on Tuesday as part of an agreement with the state. Under such a plea a defendant admits no wrongdoing, but concedes there is enough evidence to result in a conviction.

An Alford plea, however, is treated no differently than a regular guilty plea, although the plea agreement proposes 90 days in jail with a chance at work release and three years of supervised probation.

The court is not required to adopt the sentencing recommendations.

Stevens is accused of molesting the girl on a number of occasions between 2004 and 2006, when she was between the ages of 14 and 15, according to court documents.

The victim in the case, now 19, testified on Monday that Stevens had inappropriate sexual contact with her in Colburn and Sandpoint. She also told jurors Stevens showed her cell phone pictures of him having sex with another teenage girl. That teen began sending the victim unsolicited, suggestive text messages, court records indicate.

The victim further testified that Stevens insisted on having sex with her but she flatly rebuffed the advance, which allegedly prompted Stevens to threaten to tell her mother the two were involved in a physical relationship.

It was also divulged Monday that the victim attempted to recant her statements to investigators, but she told jurors her mother was pressuring her to do so. The victim stood by the original allegations on Monday.

In explaining his change of plea, Stevens made a vague remarks about “watching a moving” and “personal actions towards myself, according to his written guilty plea.

“And I do not believe I can present a good defense,” Stevens said in the guilty plea.

Stevens is ordered to submit to a psychosexual evaluation and a polygraph examination before he is sentenced.