An Elizabethton man pled guilty to one count of aggravated child neglect in connection with an Elizabethton Police Department investigation from 2017.

On Wednesday, Cory Brett Scalf, 21, of Elizabethton entered a guilty plea to a charge of aggravated child neglect in Carter County Criminal Court before Judge Lisa Nidiffer Rice.

Scalf was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison. Under state law, Scalf must serve 85 percent of the sentence before he will be eligible for parole.

The charges against Scalf stem from an investigation by the Elizabethton Police Department into allegations he abused and neglected a young child between July 2017 and December 2017. During the time the alleged actions occurred the child was 14 months to 19 months old.

According to the indictment,  Scalf committed the offense of aggravated child abuse “by knowingly abusing (the child), a child being eight years of age or less, in such a manner as to adversely affect the child’s health and welfare and said course of conduct resulted in serious bodily injury to the child.”

Scalf also pled guilty to a charge of theft of property over $10,000 and a charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary. The theft of property over $10,000 stems from an investigation by the Elizabethton Police Department into allegations Scalf stole a trained police dog from an Elizabethton residence on July 24, 2017.

On the charges of theft of property over $10,000 and conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, Scalf was sentenced to serve 3 years of probation under ACCP to run consecutively to the 15-year prison sentence. The Alternative Community Corrections Programs and services are a form of alternative sentencing for convicted felony offenders in lieu of incarceration by providing intensive supervision and structured rehabilitative services in the community.