A sexual assault case that began in 2015, had 44 continuances filed in it, finally came to a conclusion on Monday morning in Carbon County court when the defendant entered a guilty plea to a reduced charge with all the more serious counts dropped.

Rafo Bencun, 73, of Palmerton, pleaded guilty to one count of simple assault, which was added to the original complaint.

Counts of aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault and corruption of minors were dismissed in a plea deal with the district attorney’s office.

The case’s journey through the criminal justice system was the result of continuances filed by the commonwealth, but mostly by the defense counsel.

District Attorney Michael S. Greek said he reached the plea deal with Bencun, and his attorney, Paul J. Levy, “based upon recent discovery requests from the defendant we have determined that the victim would not be able to testify sufficiently to substantiate the criminal offenses charged.”

The alleged victim was 14 at the time of the incident and was reported to be mentally challenged and attending special education classes.

Palmerton police filed the charges for an incident on July 1, 2014.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Detective Kevin Buck: The girl met Bencun in the borough park and went with him to his apartment.

Upon entering the apartment, Bencun began asking the victim if she ever had sex, and she advised him that she was only 14 years old.

After asking the victim if she wanted to try it, she told Bencun that she did not and he then asked her about “practice sex” which led to Bencun taking her into the bedroom and pushing her down on the bed and rubbing against her.

The victim said this lasted about five to six minutes before she pushed him off her.

He told her in the future he would take her to California with him.

On Monday Bencun admitted he pushed the girl down on the bed while she was in his apartment but denied any sexual contact with her.

Levy told the court his client now realizes he should not have a young girl, who is not a relative, in his apartment alone.

Bencun told President Judge Roger N. Nanovic, “I just pushed her down.”

Greek said there was a “lot of discovery” in the case and that was part of the reason the case took so long to reach the court.

Nanovic placed Bencun on probation for two years and ordered he get both a mental health and drug and alcohol evaluations and follow any recommendations for treatment, supply a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation and have no contact with the victim.