A 37-year old city woman pleaded guilty Tuesday at the Capital Judicial Center to three instances of sexual abuse of a boy who was between 14 and 15 years old at the time, and she was ordered to serve an initial 18 months behind bars.

The remainder of the four-year sentence for Loni D. Ingalls was suspended, and the initial period of incarceration is to be followed by two years’ probation.

The charges indicated the offenses occurred between Nov. 1-20, 2015, between Dec. 24, 2015,-Jan. 1, 2016, and Jan. 1-Feb. 11, 2016, all in Augusta.

Ingalls told Judge Paul Mathews that the dates were incorrect, and that the last offense was in January.

When the judge asked Ingalls if she was guilty, she said, “of the acts yes.” She added, “It was consensual.”

Ingalls’ attorney, Stephen Bourget, and the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Frayla Tarpinian, told the judge that the disputed dates would not change the age of the victim or the guilty pleas.

Tarpinian said Ingalls contacted the boy via text messages.

She also told the judge that the victim’s mother was in the courtroom watching the hearing, but did not wish to speak to the judge.

Ingalls was arrested Feb. 22 after a two-week investigation by police, who were tipped off by the boy’s mother. She has been held in jail since then, and Bourget said Ingalls would be given credit for the six months already served.

An affidavit by Augusta police Detective Tori Tracy said the mother showed police messages she had seen on a cellphone she had taken from her son. The boy later told investigators that Ingalls had supplied him with the phone.

The affidavit, filed in the court, also says Ingalls used a pseudonym, Vivian Smith, when contacting the boy and when communicating with him via Facebook.

It says the sexual abuse happened in Ingalls’ apartment between Nov. 1, 2015, and Feb. 11, 2016.

Ingalls also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of Vicodin on June 1, 2015, in Augusta, and received a 30-day concurrent sentence and a $400 fine. A charge of aggravated furnishing of scheduled drugs was dismissed in exchange for the pleas. That charge said she furnished hydrocodone in the form of Vicodin to the same boy and to his older brother from June 1 to Oct. 26, 2015, in Augusta.

As a result of her conviction, Ingalls is required to register as a lifetime offender under the state’s Sex Offender Registration & Notification Act.

Conditions of probation prohibit her from having contact with the boy and his family and from having contact with children under age 16.

She also was ordered to undergo sex offender counseling.

Earlier in the case, a different judge had ordered a mental evaluation of Ingalls in anticipation of a guilty plea in order to help determine conditions of probation.