SANDPOINT - A Kootenai man was ordered to serve 10 days in jail for inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl in Bonner County last year.

Steven Christopher Belgarde had no comment before 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan imposed the sentence on Monday, court records show.

Belgarde, 30, was originally charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor. He was accused of touching the genitals of one 14-year-old girl last year and another 14-year-old in 2005, in addition to having sex with a third teen, 15, in 2005.

The fondling allegations were reduced to two counts of misdemeanor battery to which Belgarde pleaded guilty.

The state recommended consecutive 180-day sentences, the maximum allowable under state law, court records indicate. Buchanan adopted the recommendation.

"You engaged in serious misconduct," Buchanan said.

However, the court suspended all but 10 days of the sentence. Belgarde was also placed on probation for four years.

The alleged victim in the case urged for a lengthy prison term and that Belgarde be made to register as a sex offender, options which were not at the court's disposal because the charges were amended.

"I don't want him to just get off," she said in a written statement. "I want him to go to jail because I know that I am not the only one he has done this to, and I don't want anyone to have to go through this."