A Carbon County man was sentenced to a county prison term on Tuesday afternoon on a charge of indecent assault.

Rashion Taliek Venable, 22, of Albrightsville, was sentenced by President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II to serve nine to one day less 24 months in the county prison.Venable previously pleaded guilty to the charge. The case dates back five years and has been continued at least 51 times.Venable was charged for an incident dating to May 2009 when he was 17. He was charged as an adult. Some of the continuances were caused by Venable's defense counsel at the time attempting to move the case to juvenile court.Venable was charged by state police at Fern Ridge with having sexual contact with his "best friend," a 16-year-old female from Penn Forest Township. The incident occurred on May 27, 2009.At the time of his arrest, troopers said the victim went to a friend's home to hang out. Besides the friend, Venable was present.The victim told troopers that Venable was "her best friend." He allegedly asked her to enter a guest room to speak to her privately. Once in the room, Venable allegedly tried to kiss the victim, who then attempted to leave.The police report stated that Venable grabbed the girl, tossed her on the bed and raped her. She told police she told Venable "no" and to stop, and that she also struggled. Venable allegedly placed his hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming.The arrest report also stated that the victim pinched Venable "really hard" and was able to scream because he moved his hand from her mouth. At that point Venable allegedly got off her and she ran from the room.In a plea bargain, charges of rape, sexual assault, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, criminal attempt at rape, and one of two indecent assault counts were dropped.Venable apologized for his actions. When asked by Nanovic why he would do such a thing to his best friend, Venable said, in part, it was his "immaturity."Nanovic said the mother of the victim told the adult probation office that her daughter is still suffering from the effects of what happened. She said her daughter could not return to school and had to be educated in a cyberschool. He said the mother said the incident had "a major effect on her life."Defense Attorney Matthew Mottola said since the incident Venable has not been in any kind of trouble. He said he graduated from high school and spent one semester at a community college. He said Venable plans to go back to school after he serves his prison term.In addition to the jail term, Nanovic ordered Venable to make restitution of $302, submit to a sexual offender evaluation, have no contact with the victim or her family, pay court costs of about $1,000, and pay a $50 per months supervision fee when released on parole.The charge falls under the provisions of Megan's Law meaning Venable must register as a sexual offender for the next 25 years.He was given credit for 121 days spent in jail on the charge and will begin his prison term at 4 p.m. on Dec. 26.