A 19-year-old former firefighter accused of having sex with a middle-school girl pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge, but he’ll still spend time in jail.

Kasey Maxwell, a former Oak Harbor resident, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation in Island County Superior Court last month as part of a plea bargain.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme said he decided to offer the plea bargain after identifying problems in his case against Maxwell, including the fact that the victim refused to cooperate and never gave a statement.

Ohme also insisted that Maxwell receive a psychosexual evaluation from a psychologist, who determined that Maxwell is not a sexual predator.

Maxwell was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old girl at the Sky Warrior Theater at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

Ohme said nearly all the evidence came from Maxwell, who was surprisingly honest in his interview with a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services.

The girl first contacted Maxwell through surreptitious texts; she told him she was 15 years old, but he acknowledged she acted and looked younger, the NCIS report indicates.

Under a rule of law, a case cannot go forward on the strength of a confession if there’s no corroborating evidence. Ohme said there’s a chance the case would have been thrown out if it went to trial.

Ohme said Maxwell lost his job as a firefighter and EMT after he was charged.

Under the plea bargain, Maxwell will spend two months in jail and will have to continue seeing a psychologist after he gets out.