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Police said Ashley Garner, 23, sent a stream of text messages urging a 14-year-old boy to have sex with her.

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In a case that is both belated and bizarre, a Dauphin County judge Tuesday imposed a 5-year probation sentence on a Harrisburg woman who begged a 14-year-old boy to have sex with her.



Judge Deborah E. Curcillo ordered that penalty more than a year and a half after Ashley Garner, 23, pleaded no contest to a corruption of minors charge.

Curcillo had intended to sentence Garner in August 2015, but Garner didn't show for her sentencing hearing and disappeared until she was apprehended in late 2016.



Garner initially was arrested after police said she sent the teen a stream of text messages in 2014 asking to have sex with him. Investigators said the contact never went beyond texting.



The sentence Curcillo imposed was set under a plea deal Garner reached with prosecutors in June 2015. When Garner didn't appear for her August 2015 sentencing hearing a warrant was issued for her arrest, Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle said.



Gettle said Tuesday that when she was apprehended in late 2016, Garner explained her absence by claiming she had gotten lost in the woods.



Garner, who appeared before the judge in a county prison uniform and shackles, said nothing when Curcillo gave her a chance to speak. Senior Assistant Public Defender Mary Klatt urged Curcillo to honor the original plea deal and to release Garner to the custody of her mother immediately, which the judge did.



Terms Curcillo set for her probation bar Garner from having contact with anyone under age 18, except for her 4-year-old daughter. She also must register with state police as a sex offender for 15 years.



