RUSTBURG — A Campbell County teen accused of forcibly sodomizing two girls last year was allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery Thursday, ending his incarceration.
Joshua Kenneth Archer, 17, also pleaded guilty in juvenile and domestic relations court to sexual battery of a 13-year-old middle school student, according to his plea agreement.
The agreement states he will not have to register as a sex offender. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Brook Wilse-Gaddy said after the hearing that Archer will spend no more time at the Lynchburg Juvenile Detention Center, where he has been incarcerated for the last six months.
Because the crime is a misdemeanor, however, no other information about his sentence in the juvenile court was available.
New Campbell County Circuit Judge John Cook suspended a two-year sentence on the two counts of assault and battery Archer pleaded guilty to in circuit court.
Archer, instead, will undergo three years of probation, a term of three years of good behavior and is not allowed to have any contact with the victims or to go on their property.
“He acknowledged he did something wrong,” Wilse-Gaddy said. “It gives the victims closure and they didn’t have to go through a trial.”
She said the victims’ families agreed to the terms of the agreement.
During Archer’s preliminary hearing, a 17-year-old girl testified he forced her to perform oral sex in the Food Lion parking lot in October.
A 16-year-old girl testified that he did the same thing to her at a party in November.
Finally, according to court records, Archer gave the 13-year-old a ride home from school at the request of her brother before sexually assaulting her.
In the preliminary hearing, though, acquaintances of the girls testified the oldest of the three continued to pursue Archer after the October assault and talked about the event at school as if it were consensual.
The 16-year-old’s testimony during the hearing was also inconsistent with her earlier statements to police.
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