A Douglas County judge Thursday morning ordered a 25-year-old Lawrence woman convicted of two misdemeanor child endangerment charges to serve one year on probation and abstain from drinking alcohol during that time.

Natasha L. Short pleaded no contest in September to the two charges after prosecutors accused her of placing her girls in danger a year earlier by leaving them with her husband at the time, Bradley W. Ford who has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison for abusing Short’s daughter, 6, and the couple’s daughter, 6 months.

“She’s been remorseful about this whole thing,” defense attorney Greg Robinson said. “If she could have gone back and never gotten involved with Mr. Ford, she never would have.”

District Judge Michael Malone in February sentenced Ford, 30, to serve two years and eight months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse. Prosecutors accused Ford of throwing the couple’s infant daughter onto a bed in September 2010 when she was crying. The baby bounced onto the floor and suffered broken bones. Prosecutors alleged she also had older injuries.

In addition, Ford pleaded guilty to choking his 6-year-old stepdaughter, who was Short’s daughter. The incidents occurred at the family’s residence in the 200 block of Pinecone Drive.

According to Lawrence police testimony in Ford’s case, Ford told an officer in an interview that the night he threw the infant onto the bed, he was watching the baby because Short had gone to a bar with a friend.

Short has since filed for divorce from Ford, according to court records.

Prosecutor Amy McGowan, a chief assistant district attorney, did ask Malone to sentence Short to probation and to order her to follow recommendations from family services and mental health officials. But McGowan also accused Short of not accepting responsibility for leaving her children with Ford.

“Ms. Short tends to blame everybody else and all the other circumstances for what happened to her children,” McGowan said, mentioning a statement attributed to Short in a court services officer’s report that her older daughter had an over-active imagination.

Robinson said he believed the statement was taken out of context. He also said Short noticed something was not right with the baby more than once and took her to get medical attention, which eventually alerted police to the situation.

Malone followed the plea agreement for probation but ruled Short could face two years in prison if she’s found to violate terms of her probation.

“You’re going to have to accept the fact that you’re the adult in this situation and not put your children, who should be first and foremost in your thoughts and in your actions,” Malone said, “behind your own pleasure seeking and your own immaturity.”