Erica Suskie, a former substitute teacher at Catholic High, has entered a negotiated plea to a reduced charge in a case of sexual contact with a high school student and received a probationary sentence.

Suskie, 44, was charged in February on a warrant issued by North Little Rock police for sexual assault. The victim was said by the prosecutor to be a child of a family friend. Suskie was a substitute teacher at Catholic High when the allegations about relations with a student surfaced last fall, but the charge did not involve events at the school, Prosecutor Larry Jegley said. The school reported rumors it heard to the State Police, which initiated the investigation, and it ended Suskie’s role as a teacher. An affidavit filed for the arrest said Suskie had served as a tutor to the teen, had sex with him at her North Little Rock home and his family’s home in Sherwood and he had phone messages and a photo that indicated a sexual relationship.

Suskie, wife of former Arkansas Public Service Commission chairman Paul Suskie, appeared with her attorney in Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s court this morning and entered a negotiated guilty plea. The state reduced the first degree sexual assault charge to indecent exposure. She was sentenced to a year of probation, a $2,500, counseling for the duration of probation, registration as a sex offender and ordered to have no contact with the victim. The order entered by the judge said “neither party will have any comment regarding this case to the media.