A Carbon County man was sentenced to a county prison term on Thursday on sexual assault charges.

Damion Matthew Mitchell, 24, of Palmerton, was sentenced by President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II to serve one day less 12 to one day less 24 months in prison on a charge of statutory sexual assault followed by one year of probation on a charge of indecent assault.

Mitchell previously pleaded to the charges in exchange for the district attorney’s office dropping a felony 1 count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and a felony 2 count of aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 16.

Mitchell was arrested by state police at Lehighton after troopers received a report of suspected child abuse and neglect from the Carbon County Office of Children and Youth Services.

Case history

The report identified the victim as a then 15-year-old female. The victim identified Mitchell, who was 20 years old at the time the incidents occurred.

The victim admitted having a relationship with the defendant since July 2017 and knew his age, and he knew her age at time. The victim further told troopers she had consensual sex with Mitchell in excess of 10 times from July 4 to Sept. 15, 2017.

The defendant was interviewed on Nov. 29, 2017, and confirmed that he had been dating the victim and that they had sexual intercourse in a residence in Lower Towamensing Township, “and may have occurred in additional locations.”

Charges were filed on April 6, 2018. It has taken a long time to reach the court as 20 continuances were filed in the matter.

Mitchell told Nanovic, “I’m sorry it happened.”

Turning toward the victim, who was in the courtroom with her family, Mitchell said, “I just hope you can forgive me.”

In addition to the jail term, Mitchell must register as a sexual offender for the next 25 years and was ordered to get a sexual offenders evaluation, follow all provisions of Megan’s Law concerning registration requirements and other conditions, have no contact with the victim or her family, have no unsupervised contact with minors, supply a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee.

It was noted that Mitchell was determined not to be a sexual violent predator by the state sexual offenders assessment board.

He will begin the jail term at 6 p.m. on June 25.