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

President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II sentenced Eric Brown, 29, of Lehighton to serve three to one day less 24 months in prison. Brown will also have to register for the next 15 years as a sexual offender under the provisions of Megan's Law.Brown was arrested by Lehighton police for having inappropriate sexual contact with a then 4-year-old boy.At the time of the guilty plea Nanovic noted he met with Assistant District Attorney Joseph D. Perilli and defense counsel Paul Levy concerning the plea agreement, which the judge said he had reservations about. The plea bargain had the indecent assault charge Brown pleaded to added to the original complaint and rated a misdemeanor two. In exchange the commonwealth dropped charges of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, corruption of a minor and a indecent assault count rated as a misdemeanor one.The mother of the victim, very emotional and crying throughout, read a lengthy statement into the record telling the court how the incident affected her child. She said the child continues with counseling, has nightmares, can't sleep alone and is afraid to be alone in their home. She told the court, "He took my son's innocence." She also asked the court to sentence Brown to a prison term of two to five years.Nanovic said he could not impose such a sentence because the plea bargain had Brown pleading to a misdemeanor two, which has a maximum sentence of two years. He said that both the commonwealth and defense counsels said that the victim's family agreed to the arrangement.Perilli interjected that the plea agreement was reached so that the victim did not have to go through a trial, something the family wanted to avoid.Nanovic asked Brown if he had anything to say, and the defendant responded, "I have nothing to say." Then, prompted by Nanovic, Brown apologized to the family and victim.Nanovic also noted that Brown was evaluated by the state sexual assessment board which determined he was not a sexual violent predator. If it ruled otherwise the registration period would have been for life.Nanovic said he read the police report and the information in the presentence investigation report prepared by the adult probation office and was concerned that Brown denied his involvement when interviewed for the report.On Monday Brown said he did what the police report states he did.Nanovic called the facts "disgusting" and said, "No one who has any kind of love for a child would not be repulsed by this."In addition to the jail term and registration period Brown was also ordered to get a sexual offenders evaluation and follow all recommendations, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on parole, have no contact with the victim or his family and have no unsupervised contact with minors, except his own children.He was given credit for 29 days spent in jail on the charges and will begin the jail term at 1 p.m. April 13.