An Allentown man avoided a prison term on Monday morning in Carbon County court when the victim told the presiding judge she didn’t think jail time would do the defendant any good.

Luis Daniel Rivera, 21, formerly of Lansford, pleaded guilty to one count of simple assault. In exchange for the plea a felony 2 count of strangulation was dropped in a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office.

On Feb. 2 Lansford police were dispatched to an apartment along East Patterson Street for a domestic incident. Rivera was involved with his then live-in girlfriend.

On Monday, the victim told the court that she and Rivera got into an argument and she attempted to leave the apartment. He grabbed her shirt and pulled it, choking her, finally ripping it. She said he also struck several times.

She told President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II that she didn’t think a jail term would do any good. She said she currently has a protection from abuse order against Rivera.

Nanovic told Rivera that prior to the victim’s statement about the jail term, he was ready to impose one but won’t due to what was said.

Nanovic then placed Rivera on probation for two years and ordered him to get both drug and alcohol and mental health evaluations, attend and successfully complete an anger management course, supply a DNA sample, have no contact with the victim, make restitution to the state department of health services for $818.79 it paid for medical bills incurred by the victim, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation and must surrender any firearms he possesses to the sheriff department within 24 hours.