PULASKI -- Mark Reed Nelson was 25 in 1989 when he was first charged with the carnal knowledge of a 13-year-old girl he met while shooting pool at a game room in Pulaski County.

The charge was soon dropped, however, after the victim refused to testify.

Nelson most recently worked as a full-time firefighter and paramedic with Roanoke Fire-EMS, a part-time paramedic for Salem Fire & EMS Department and part time with Carilion Clinic as a paramedic and teaching classes.

But in 2008, the woman, whom The Roanoke Times is not naming because of the sexual nature of the offense, changed her mind about testifying. She had learned that a member of her family was going to marry a member of Nelson's.

Nelson, now 46, was shocked when he was charged again. He testified during a hearing Friday in Pulaski County Circuit Court that he had thought "it was dropped, it was done, it was over with."

At the hearing -- held more than 21 years after the incident took place -- Nelson was convicted of the lesser charge of attempted carnal knowledge by a judge who said he was disturbed that the case was going forward so many years after the incident.

"This case is a tough case, puts the court in an awful position," Judge Bobby Turk said when announcing his finding.

He said he felt he had to find Nelson guilty based on the evidence he had heard. He sentenced Nelson to five years in prison, all suspended, and placed him on probation for two years.

He told Nelson that he would have to register as a sex offender, which labeled him as a sexual predator, "and I really don't think you are."

Nelson, who grew up in Pulaski but lives in Moneta, said he lost all three of his jobs after he was charged.

A jury trial had been scheduled for October, but Nelson opted instead to enter an Alford plea. An Alford plea allows Nelson to maintain his innocence while admitting there is enough evidence for a conviction.

Turk deferred a finding of guilt until Friday, when he was told more about the incident during a hearing that lasted about two and a half hours and included many objections about allowable testimony from Assistant Pulaski County Commonwealth's Attorney Bobby Lilly and Nelson's lawyer, Deborah Caldwell-Bono.

Turk overruled most of the objections, saying he wanted to hear the whole story.

Nelson testified that he and a friend were shooting pool when they were approached by two girls. One of them claimed to be a high school senior and came on to him, he said. She appeared to be 18, he said.

As he and his friend were leaving, Nelson said, the girls invited themselves along. The victim drank a large amount of tequila -- so much that Nelson said he took the bottle from her -- and repeatedly said she wanted to have sex with him, he and his friend, Perry Gray, both testified.

Gray and Nelson, who was married and had a small child at the time, took the girls back to Gray's home. There, Nelson and Gray testified, the girl took off her clothes and told Nelson she wanted to have sex. Nelson testified that she unfastened his pants and pulled him on top of her. They never had sex, he said.

The woman testified that she only remembers waking up in her vomit with Nelson on top of her. She didn't know where she was, she said.

She began crying and told Nelson she was 14. He became upset and slapped her.

"She wouldn't quit saying that I'd raped her and I hadn't raped her," he said. He found out later she was 13.

The woman read the court a prepared statement, saying that being a rape victim caused her to fall into a deep depression. She said she has paid for 20 years and that it was time for Nelson to pay.

Asked why she didn't testify against Nelson in 1989, the woman cried.

"I couldn't do it," she said. "I've struggled with it for all these years" and tried to forget about it.