Former Flathead man gets deferred sentence

A former player for the short-lived Glacier Outlaws baseball team received a six-year deferred sentence after admitting to ending up in a woman’s bed without permission.

Eric Cordova, 28, of Los Angeles, was sentenced by Flathead District Court Judge Robert Allison Thursday after pleading guilty to felony criminal endangerment as part of a plea agreement in which a felony sexual intercourse without consent charge was dropped. Cordova was accused of raping a woman in May 2015, but denied sexually assaulting her.

The plea agreement was reached on the eve of going to trial.

Deputy County Attorney Alison Howard said the victim in the incident was “on board” with the resolution. However, the defense had concerns on some of the conditions that are standard for a sex offender, such as completing a sex offender evaluation and getting treatment.

Defense attorney Brent Getty said Cordova did “take responsibility for what he could.”

“He did take responsibility for the drinking that he did on the night in question and he did take responsibility for the poor decision to get into the bed with her, without her permission, without her knowledge,” Getty said. “After that, the case is murky for both sides and this plea agreement resulted from that murkiness that whether or not there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt as to the allegation of sexual intercourse.”

Before sentencing Allison gave his thoughts on the conditions of the sentence.

“I don’t necessarily agree that it was entirely a non-sexual based offense — it was — but I don’t disagree that the case was very problematic,” Allison said, noting that the chance of acquittal was high.

Allison settled on a middle ground of imposing the conditions of concern, noting that Cordova didn’t have a history “of acting out sexually.” However, Allison said if Cordova’s probation officer “were to feel that Mr. Cordova was acting out in some sort of sexually concerning way he could request and the court would consider imposing those conditions.”

According to court documents, deputies responded to a 911 call on May 24, 2015, in Whitefish. The victim said she and another woman went downtown for a drink, where they met Cordova and another man. After a few drinks one of the women invited Cordova’s friend to her home. Once at the woman’s house, the victim stated that she made it clear she was not interested in Cordova by going to bed and shutting the door. She told deputies that later on she was awakened by Cordova, who was allegedly having sexual intercourse with her. She then slapped him and yelled that he had raped her.