Sentencing is scheduled in March for a Walkersville resident and former Montgomery County pastor who pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually abusing a girl.

Joe Nix Ivey, 74, pleaded guilty to one count of a second-degree sexual offense at a hearing in Frederick County Circuit Court.

Ivey’s attorney Richard Bricken said sentencing in the case is scheduled for March 28. Ivey could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Bricken said he plans to ask for no jail time, but no sentence has been agreed to.

Frederick County State’s Attorney Chuck Smith (R) said prosecutors would seek a sentence within the sentencing guidelines of four-to-10 years, although Judge G. Edward Dwyer Jr. could go above or below that recommendation.

“These are the type of cases where you always want to treat the defendant as harshly as possible. But as in this case, there are times that the family’s needs and the need for the child not to have to testify are paramount,” Smith wrote in an email to The Gazette on Tuesday.

Ivey was arrested after the girl’s parents reported the incident in August to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office. He had been a senior pastor at Barnesville Baptist Church in Montgomery County, but resigned after he was charged in the case.

Contacted Tuesday, Barnesville Baptist’s pastor, the Rev. Randy Gilliam, said he continued to pray for and support Ivey and everyone involved in the case.

According to court documents, the girl told her mother that Ivey sexually abused her in his Walkersville home in February 2010, when she was about 10 years old.

She said a similar incident occurred when she was 6, but Ivey told investigators he couldn’t remember if that incident occurred.

After speaking with investigators, police listened as the girl called Ivey, during which he told her that what had happened was between them and God, according to the court documents.

Ivey initially denied abusing the girl but eventually signed a one-page statement about the incident and spoke about his reget for what happened.

rmarshall@gazette.net