A Keller teen originally accused of sexually assaulting a mentally disabled football teammate at an Idaho high school has entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge and will be sentenced to probation.

John R.K. Howard

John R.K. Howard, 19, entered an Alford plea Friday to a felony charge of injury to a child, the Twin Falls Times-News reported. The plea, which is considered a guilty plea, means that Howard maintains his innocence but acknowledges that prosecutors probably would have been able to convict him.

Under Howard's plea agreement, a judge will sentence him to two or three years of probation, likely to be served in Texas, and prosecutors will recommend 300 hours of community service. If he violates the terms of his probation, he could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Howard had originally been charged with forcible sexual penetration by a foreign object and faced up to life in prison if convicted. He pleaded not guilty to that charge in September.

According to a lawsuit seeking $10 million from Dietrich High School, one of the victim's classmates pretended to give him a hug in a school locker room. Howard, then 18, and 17-year-old Tanner Ray Ward then assaulted him with a clothes hanger, the lawsuit says.

Ward has since pleaded guilty in juvenile court; his charge is unknown because the court records are sealed. The other teen also was charged in juvenile court.

The assault followed months of racially charged abused of the victim, who is black, the lawsuit alleges. The student had been "taunted and called racist names by other members of the team which names included 'Kool-Aid' 'chicken eater' 'watermelon' and [the N-word]."

The lawsuit also claims football coaches told players to fight the victim — who suffers "mental disorders including learning disabilities" — to toughen him up.

Howard, who has since moved back to Texas, had been sent to live with family in Dietrich, Idaho, to keep him out of trouble, according to the lawsuit.

Deputy Attorney General Casey Hemmer said in court last week that the state no longer considered the incident a sex crime, KTVB-TV reported.

"It was egregious behavior. It caused this victim a lot of suffering," he said. "But it is not, in our view, a sex crime, which is why the state has amended this charge. We don't believe it is appropriate for Mr. Howard to suffer the consequences of a sex offender, but he still needs to be held accountable."

Hemmer also said prosecutors didn't plan to argue that the assault was racially motivated.

"I will say that there are things that we found going around that school and that locker room involving a lot of the parties here that had racial undertones," he said. "But it's not our belief that this was a racially motivated crime. This was more of a vulnerable-victim motivated crime."

Attorney E. Lee Schlender, who is representing the victim's family in the civil case, told KTVB that the family was "terribly disturbed and outraged" by the plea deal.

The victim has been institutionalized after suffering a breakdown following the assault, Schlender said, and the family has moved away from Dietrich.

Another lawyer representing the family, R. Keith Roark, told The Washington Post that he protested the plea agreement to the Idaho attorney general's office.

"It's absolutely preposterous that this kid should walk away with apparently no punishment whatsoever," he said.

Howard's sentencing is set for Feb. 24.