The Evanston resident arrested in November for attempting to enter the bedroom of a Northwestern student pled guilty to attempted criminal trespass to real property Thursday at Skokie Courthouse.

Steven Manning, 32, was arrested on November 16 after police were called to a house in the 2000 block of Sherman Avenue at 5:36 a.m. when a female NU student heard someone attempting to enter her unlocked bedroom window.

Manning was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge, during which he will report regularly to the Social Service Department, said Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Kasia Kaczmarczyk. He must also serve 10 days on the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, a program that allows individuals to perform supervised manual labor in lieu of jail time. He cannot have any contact with the NU student whose call to the police resulted in his arrest.

“You got a break today,” Judge Paul Pavlus of the Cook County Circuit Court told Manning at his Thursday court appearance.

The assistant state’s attorney, Judge Pavlus and Manning’s lawyer, Mike Gillespie, determined the sentencing after a negotiating process in which the attorneys and judge discussed the case out of Manning’s presence.

Gillespie said the incident in which Manning attempted to enter the student’s bedroom is a “big misunderstanding.”

“Steve just wants to get this all behind him,” Gillespie said.

Manning was arrested and charged with three felonies in 2008 after police said he broke into the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house. Police said two students reported waking up to Manning in their room watching them sleep.

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