A 24-year-old Post Falls man who struck a 5-year-old, forced him to strip, then photographed him naked with a handwritten sign covering his genitals will serve 50 days in jail as part of a sentence for two misdemeanors including a count of battery and one count of injury to child.

John H. Pearson was sentenced Friday in Kootenai Magistrate Court for crimes that occurred at the beginning of the school year, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives said they were notified Sept. 12 on the first day of school by Post Falls Kinder Center employees after the 5-year-old showed up with bruises on both sides of his face, according to deputies. The child told school officials he had been “smacked” by Pearson, his

mother’s boyfriend, according to a sheriff’s office report.

When confronted by detectives, Pearson admitted striking the boy, alleging the child had inappropriately touched his younger sister while the two were lying fully clothed on a bed playing with a tea set.

“John admitted to striking (the boy) twice on both sides of the face, which left visible bruising,” Detective Darrell Oyler wrote in his report.

Pearson said he made the boy take his clothes off and hold a handwritten sign over his genitals that read, “I like touching my little sister,” while Pearson photographed him. Pearson then forwarded the cellphone images to the boy’s mother and his biological dad, who lives in Washington. Pearson also turned the images over to authorities.

The boy’s mom, who was not charged in the case, received the image while she was at work.

“She was really upset about the situation,” according to the investigator’s report.

The child standing naked in the photograph looked distraught, as if he had been crying, Deputy Matthew Brakeman, one of the first deputies on scene, said in his report.

“(The boy) appeared ashamed and was visibly anguished in the photo,” Brakeman wrote. “It is my opinion that by punishing (him) in this way … photographing him naked with the sign … Pearson inflicted unjustifiable mental suffering on the 5-year-old.”

Pearson said he lost his temper when the boy admitted touching his sister, and he told detectives he was worried the boy “will become a child predator,” according to a sheriff’s office report.

“He is trying to not let (the boy) become a monster,” Oyler wrote in his report. “John then humiliated (the boy) by stripping him down and took photos of him holding a sign declaring his sexual deviancy.”

Pearson originally pleaded not guilty to the two misdemeanors and the case was set for trial, but a February plea change resulted in last week’s sentencing.

Magistrate Anna Eckhart fined Pearson $500 and sentenced him to serve 50 days of a 180-day local jail sentence for battery, and ordered two years of supervised probation. Pearson, who was described as “not liking authority,” was ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and complete a parenting class. A no-contact order remains in place. The same sentence was ordered for the injury to child conviction, and both sentences will run concurrently.

The jail sentence was deferred until October, according to court records.