BANGOR, Maine – A Bangor High School math teacher who was accused of groping a student’s genitals will pay a $500 fine as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

James McHenry, 48, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in a deal with prosecutors after he was charged in October with unlawful sexual contact for allegedly touching a student’s genitals at an off-campus location, The Bangor Daily News reports.

Bangor school officials held a closed door meeting in December where the victim testified about the abuse, but the experience convinced the victim’s family not to relive the testimony in criminal court, Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts told the news site Tuesday.

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“The victim testified for an extensive period of time … and as a result of that encounter the victim and his parents said they didn’t want to testify (in court),” Roberts said. “That was enough.”

The decision meant McHenry was instead offered a plea deal in which he “pled guilty to assault and paid a $500 fine and the unlawful sexual contact charge was dismissed,” Roberts told the Daily News.

McHenry was fired by school officials at the December meeting with school officials.

“I do understand he won’t be teaching anymore,” Roberts said. “(The assault conviction) would show up on his record if he did seek employment somewhere else.”

Bangor attorney Jeffrey Silverstein represented McHenry, who “denies any sexual component of this,” though Silverstein did confirm that the victim was a student at Bangor High School, but no longer attends classes there. The victim was a foreign exchange student in Silverstein’s home, where the former teacher has hosted students for 14 years without issue, he told WABI TV5.

Had McHenry been convicted of the unlawful sexual contact charge he would have faced up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, according to the Daily News.

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Silverstein told WABI TV5 that McHenry’s teaching certificate is up for renewal this summer, but the teacher likely won’t pursue it.

Several local residents who commented online blamed the school district for the former teacher’s light sentence.

“This is insane,” sickofmolestersinmaine posted on the Daily News site. “And the school board should not have questioned the victim like this. Hey should have sent in for a forensic interview by an expert immediately. The school board traumatized them.”

“Based on what this article says, the Bangor School Committee threw a major monkey wrench into the prosecution of this predator,” poster jd2008jd wrote. “The BSC could have removed him from the classroom and put him in a closet counting paperclips but no, instead the questioning of the student by the BSC caused the victim to not want to testify.

“Great job BSC.”

Others weren’t surprised by the minor conviction, and highlighted the illogical priorities of the state’s criminal justice system.

“When your chief of police gets 4 years for raping a 4 year old, it’s hard to hold anybody to a standard,” ResidentMaine posted, referring to the case of former state police chief Andrew Demers Jr. “Five-hundred bucks for unlawful touching seems about on par with Maine sentencing. Kind of like a traffic ticket. Also, altogether inappropriate.

“Grow a weed though, and you’re talking 10 years.”

Others noted that McHenry’s conviction doesn’t require him to register as a sex offender, which means he could take another position working with children, such as a Boy Scout Leader, camp counselor or youth minister.

McHenry “gets to avoid having to register as a sex offender,” law_in_DisOrder posted. “His lawyer got him a good deal. Now so much for the victim.”