Man accused of rape sentenced

SANDPOINT — A Montana man who took a plea agreement to stave off being retried on a rape allegation was sentenced to time served on Monday and placed on probation for three years.

James Stephen Anderson was also given a suspended prison term of two to six years and ordered to pay nearly $2,200 in restitution, court records show.

Anderson, 53, had no comment before 1st District Judge Charles W. Hosack imposed the sentence. The alleged victim also did not address the court, but Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall stated that she did not oppose the plea agreement, according to court documents.

Anderson, a long-haul truck driver from Bigfork, was accused getting the 17-year-old girl drunk and raping her at a motel west of Priest River on Aug. 30, 2011. Anderson denied the allegations.

The alleged victim, now 19, testified at trial in May that she repeatedly objected to Anderson’s advances but could not fend off the sexual assault because he pinned her arms down.

Anderson did not testify at trial, although he denied the teen was even in his room when he was questioned by a sheriff’s deputy, court records indicate.

A jury of six men and six women deadlocked on possible charges of forcible rape, statutory rape and taking advantage of the teen’s intoxicated state in order to commit rape.

Anderson was to be retried last month, but instead entered into a plea agreement which amended the rape charge to felony injury to a child.

Anderson entered an Alford plea, meaning he admitted no wrongdoing but conceded he could be convicted.

The plea agreement recommended a suspended three- to 10-year term and 90 days to serve at the Bonner County Jail, but Hosack ordered no further incarceration and gave him credit for 10 days of pretrial incarceration, court records indicate.