Gaston County Commissioner Don Grant pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor assault on a female related to charges brought against him in the summer of 2017.

The 58-year-old Republican commissioner, who won his first term on the county board in 2016, was sentenced to 12 months of supervised probation and received a suspended 60-day prison sentence in the case.

He said he doesn't plan to resign from his elected position.

"Why would I resign?" Grant said as he walked toward a Gaston County Courthouse elevator after pleading guilty. Because the conviction was on a misdemeanor, Grant can keep his seat on the county board, according to election officials.

In June 2017, Amanda Sharpe accused Grant of assault, saying he lifted up her shirt and then reached inside the waistband of her pants before touching her inappropriately on the buttocks, Assistant District Attorney Beth Stockwell said. Grant then asked to see her private areas for further examination, Stockwell said.

Grant, who owns an extermination company, was charged in July. He said at the time he was checking her for bed bug bites.

Grant showed her inappropriate photos on his cellphone of other women he said he had examined, Sharpe told Superior Court Judge Don Bridges. She said she reacted like a "deer in the headlights."

"Whenever he did made me feel uncomfortable, at that point I didn't know what to do," Sharpe said. "I'm like, you're in my house and I'm scared."

She said she called police as soon as Grant left.

Investigators made things difficult for her since the incident, Sharpe said. She said Grant hired former private investigator Roger Self to come speak to her at work.

Self has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder for driving into a Bessemer City restaurant and killing two family members.

She learned Tuesday that prosecutors had agreed to the plea offer. She doesn't feel like justice was served.

"He (should've) been charged with sexual assault and battery and labeled as a sexual predator and have to register (as a sex offender) and all that stuff, so that no one else would have to go through what my family did," Sharpe said.

The District Attorney's office dismissed a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery in the case in exchange for the guilty plea.

Grant isn't allowed to be near Sharpe or her children, a restriction that includes a ban on three area schools. Gaston County Schools employs Grant's company for extermination work, his lawyer Travis Page said.

Grant, who represents the Gastonia Township and does not face re-election again until 2020, had denied all charges, and said he expected to be cleared in court.

"I don't think he should be a pillar of our community," Sharpe said. "He should not be representing Gaston County when you admit your guilt, even to assault on a female. What does that say to everybody?"

The State Bureau of Investigation looked into the complaint rather than local police to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, a common practice when someone accuses an elected official of wrongdoing.

Grant had asked that the public withhold judgment until all the facts of the case are presented.

“When all of this is said and done, I think you will find that I’ll be vindicated and it will be well known that these charges are not true,” Grant said last year. “I ask people not to make a decision until they hear all the facts.”

Grant has been in the extermination business for more than 40 years and been active in local politics for more than a decade.

You can reach Adam Lawson at 704-869-1842 or on Twitter @GazetteLawson.