Photo by Gage Vota Former Bellaire Salvation Army Maj. Louis Patrick pleads guilty to one count of sexual imposition in Belmont County Eastern Division Court.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Louis Patrick, the former leader of the Salvation Army in Bellaire, pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of sexual imposition.

Patrick appeared in Belmont County Eastern Division Court to enter his plea. He had been charged in April with one count of sexual battery after the Belmont County Prosecutor’s Office received a complaint from a female worker at the Salvation Army center in Bellaire on April 7. He was charged directly through the Belmont County courts, and the Bellaire Police Department did not arrest him.

Sexual imposition is a lesser, included charge related to the sexual battery count. The guilty plea is part of a plea deal that allowed him to plead to the misdemeanor charge rather than to the original felony.

Patrick is scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. June 26 before Eastern Division Judge David Trouten.