Plea agreement resolves alleged sex assault case
Megan Strickland Daily Inter Lake | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years, 5 months AGO
A former player for the short-lived Glacier Outlaws baseball team admitted Thursday to going home drunk and waking up in bed with a woman he met at a bar in May 2015, but denied that he had ever sexually assaulted her.
Eric Cordova, 27, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to one count of felony criminal endangerment as part of a plea agreement in which a sexual intercourse without consent charge was dropped.
If Flathead District Judge Robert Allison does not follow the recommendations of prosecutors and defense attorneys at a sentencing hearing in August, Cordova will be allowed to withdraw his plea.
“This is one of the rare binding plea agreements that prosecutors offer here in Flathead County,” Allison said.
On the stand, Cordova admitted that he and another man followed two women home late May 24 or early May 25, 2015 after a night of drinking at the Great Northern Bar. The group went to the residence, ate some food and continued drinking.
At one point the alleged victim went to bed and Cordova said he followed her later.
He said she woke up shouting, threw him out of bed, and accused him of sexually assaulting her. She allegedly hit him multiple times.
Cordova admitted that the woman might have incurred mental stress from waking up to an unwanted person in her bed.
Prosecutors did not want Cordova to have to complete a sex offender evaluation.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.