A former assistant coach for the Portland Pirates hockey team has begun serving a two-month jail sentence after pleading no contest to a charge of sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old girl.

District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said Michael Minard, 37, formerly of Falmouth, was sentenced Wednesday in Waldo County Superior Court in Belfast to 60 days in jail. Justice Robert Murray also imposed a fine of $560 to cover the victim’s counseling expenses.

Rushlau said Minard was admitted to the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset after his sentencing hearing.

“It was a straight up two-month sentence without probation. He is Canadian so any type of probation would have been unenforceable,” Rushlau said.

Rushlau said Canadian authorities are aware of Minard’s criminal history and will monitor him once he returns to Hamilton, Ontario, to where he moved recently.

Earlier this year, Minard was charged with soliciting sex from a minor and sending her a cellphone picture of his genitals.

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The charges were filed after an investigation by the sheriff’s office in Waldo County, where the victim lives, and the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit.

The Portland Pirates’ NHL affiliate, the Phoenix Coyotes, fired Minard from his job as goaltending coach immediately after learning of the police investigation.

Reports from the sheriff’s department and state police described how Minard met the girl and the types of exchanges they had over a three-month period.

Police said Minard met the girl at a Pirates game in Lewiston when her family sat behind the Pirates’ bench. He introduced her to players and gave her and a friend hockey sticks signed by a player. She later contacted him through the team’s Twitter account.

After messaging each other directly, Minard and the girl traded cellphone numbers. The nature of their relationship took on a sexual tone in January, according to police reports. At one point, while Minard was on the team bus returning home from a game, he sent the girl a picture of his penis. Police did not allege that he ever had sexual contact with the girl.

Minard is a native of Owen Sound, Ontario, according to a biography provided by the Pirates. He played professionally for 13 seasons, most of them in the American Hockey League.


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