A Carbon County man entered a nolo contendere, meaning “I will not contest it,” plea to a charge of indecent assault on Thursday in the county court.

Eric Martin Eidem, 46, of Lehighton, appeared before Judge Joseph J. Matika to enter the plea. In exchange for the plea, the district attorney’s office dropped felony counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of a minor and unlawful contact with a minor, sexual offenses.

Before accepting the plea, Matika asked Assistant District Attorney Joseph D. Perilli, why all the felony counts were dropped in the case.

Perilli said there were a lot of issues in the case concerning the memory of the child victim. He said there was no physical evidence in the case, only the testimony of the victim, again mentioning the memory of the child being a problem. He added that the family of the victim agreed to the plea deal.

There were 17 continuances filed in the case.

Case history

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by trooper Brian Shandra of the state police:

On Jan. 17, 2017, the girl was interviewed at the Scranton Children’s Advocacy Center, the affidavit says.

During the interview, the girl said that Eidem raped her when she was 8 years old. The victim said that while her mother was at work, she was lying in her bed reading a book when she heard her door creak open, and Eidem walked in and sexually assaulted her.

Matika accepted the plea but deferred sentencing, ordering Eidem be evaluated by the state sexual offenders assessment board to determine if he is a violent sexual predator.

Matika also told Eidem despite his “no contest” plea at the time of sentencing, according to law, the court will consider it a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 10 at 9 a.m.