A white Idaho high school football player who was charged with sexually assaulting a black, mentally disabled teammate in October 2015, pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser felony charge, and the sex crime charges have been dropped.

John R.K. Howard, 19, of Keller, Texas, pleaded guilty to a felony count of injury to a child and will be sentenced to two to three years of probation and up to 300 hours of community service, according to the Twin Falls Times-News. A judge will decide the final sentence in February.

The Alford plea Howard submitted allows him to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors probably would have won a conviction against him if the case had gone to trial.

In May, the Idaho attorney general’s office filed sexual assault charges against Howard and two of his teammates at Dietrich High School, alleging that they held the victim down, shoved a coat hanger into his rectum and then kicked the hanger several times. The other students have been charged in juvenile court.

The plea agreement was met with “bitter disappointment and outrage” from the victim’s family, their attorney, Keith Roark, said in an interview Monday afternoon.