AUBURN – An Auburn man who rode away after a woman fell from the back of his motorcycle and suffered a fatal injury apologized for shirking his responsibility.

Under a plea agreement, John Ferland pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of an accident, rather than the felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing serious injury.

Superior Court Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II sentenced him Thursday to 364 days but suspended all but three months of the sentence. Ferland also must serve a year of probation and perform 300 hours of public service.

Delahanty accepted the plea agreement because he said the state couldn’t prove that Ferland knew the victim was seriously injured when he left her on July 22, 2006. The victim, Irene Douglas, 36, of Lewiston, died several days later.

Douglas’ daughter and son tearfully pleaded Thursday for Delahanty to reinstate the felony charge.

“If he had not left my mother in the road, she would have been able to attend my graduation,” Nicole Johnson said.

For his part, Ferland said he and a friend were celebrating a birthday when they stopped at the Midnight Blues Club on Auburn’s Main Street. As he was leaving on his Harley-Davidson, he heard a woman, Delahanty, fighting with a man.

“I didn’t know who she was,” he said Thursday. “I’d never met her. She surprised me by getting on the back of my motorcycle.”

Delahanty said she needed to go to a friend’s house in Minot and asked for a ride. Ferland said she was teetering back and forth on his motorcycle and that he turned onto Fairview Court to find a level spot when she fell, he said.

Ferland said he stopped and checked Douglas’ pulse as a neighbor called for help. He said he thought she was just intoxicated, so he left her. “On that night, I failed gravely,” Ferland said. “I shirked my responsibility.”

Ferland’s attorney, Leonard Sharon, called Delahanty’s decision “a textbook sentence.”

“You know you’re getting justice down in his courtroom,” Sharon said.