STAUNTON, Va. (AP) — A former Virginia probation officer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for having sex with probationers.

The state attorney general’s office says Meaghan Marie Fields of Buena Vista was sentenced Monday in Staunton Circuit Court.

Fields had entered an Alford plea in January to two counts of carnal knowledge of a probationer. That’s a plea in which a defendant acknowledges there was sufficient evidence for conviction but does not admit guilt.

In return for her plea, drug, gun and bribery charges were dropped.

Authorities say the incidents occurred during an 18-month period in 2011 and 2012, when Fields was in charge of supervising gang members who were on probation.

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