SANDPOINT - A Sagle man was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he carried on a sexual relationship with an underage girl.

Larry Dean Flanigan Jr. is charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor, statutory rape and use of a mobile device to entice a child.

Flanigan made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Wednesday via video conference from the jail. Judge Penny Friedlander sustained Flanigan's $50,000 bail and appointed a public defender to represent him, court records show.

An order forbidding Flanigan from contacting the alleged victim in the case was also entered on Thursday.

The criminal charges against Flanigan date from August of last year. Charging documents allege that Flanigan used his mobile phone to persuade a 15-year-old girl to leave her home late at night and go to his home to engage in sexual activity.

The relationship was uncovered when the alleged victim's mother caught her coming home from one of the late-night rendezvous and confiscated her phone, which was later turned over to Bonner County sheriff's investigators, according to unsealed probable cause hearing testimony.

Flanigan, 22, declined to be interviewed by detectives, court records indicate.

A preliminary hearing is pending to determine if the state has enough evidence to justify trying Flanigan on the three felonies.

Flanigan was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and three counts of aggravated assault in 2011 for unleashing a shotgun blast on a carload of people during an altercation near Clark Fork.

Two people were injured by the gunfire - pellets from the blast came within one-sixteenth of an inch of mortally wounding one of the vehicle's occupants, according to court documents.

In an agreement with the state, Flanigan pleaded guilty to one of the felony battery counts. He was given a suspended prison term and probation after serving six months in the Idaho Department of Correction's retained jurisdiction program.