SANDPOINT - Civil mediation is being ordered in an attempt to resolve a criminal case against a Sagle man indicted on a lewd-conduct charge, court records indicate.

Mark Franklin Bernheisel was to be tried in 1st District Court this month. Mediation in the case was ordered on March 5.

A Bonner County grand jury indicted Bernheisel last year on allegations that he molested a girl in 2012 and 2013, when she was between the ages of 2 and 3. Bernheisel pleaded not guilty to the offense.

The mediation order comes as Bernheisel's defense counsel, Coeur d'Alene attorney Michael G. Palmer, moved to limit testimony and evidence jurors will hear and see.

"This motion attempts to keep the trial focused upon admissible evidence without slander, speculation, vouching and unfairly prejudicial comments," Palmer wrote in the motion.

Palmer argued that the grand jury proceedings ignored standard rules of evidence and due-process protections.

As a result, the defense sought to limit testimony about the alleged victim's mother's impressions about the misconduct, a detective's observations about the truthfulness of the alleged victim and Bernheisel's conduct in prior relationships, according to court documents.

The motion also sought to bar testimony about Bernheisel's refusal to submit to a polygraph examination, videos of the alleged victim being interviewed and Bernheisel's second-degree murder conviction in North Carolina in 1998.

Bernheisel, 48, is free on $100,000 bond while the case is pending.