MENOMINEE, Mich. – A former sheriff’s deputy accused in the sexual assault of a teenage boy in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. Brian W. Helfert of Menominee pleaded guilty in court Friday to attempted accosting for immoral purposes, which carries a penalty of up to two years. “I wish to plead guilty, your honor,” Helfert said in court, according to The EagleHerald in Marinette, Wisconsin. He also acknowledged “inappropriate” statements made to the teenage victim who he knew through his assignment as a Menominee County juvenile crime investigator and school resource officer. Helfert was fired from the Menominee County Sheriff’s Department in December 2019.