NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — A former high school basketball star with a scholarship from Providence College has been sentenced to three years of probation for stabbing another teenager, a decision police and the victim's family criticized as too lenient.

Brian Rudolph, 18, of New Bedford, who stabbed Jose Raposo, 19, at a party in Acushnet in April, was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service on Tuesday as part of a plea deal with prosecutors that angered police.

"I am outraged. This is unacceptable," Acushnet Police Chief Michael Alves told the Standard-Times of New Bedford. "I can't even call this a slap on the wrist. It's a terrible decision to even to allow it to happen."

The case was continued without a finding, but Rudolph admitted sufficient facts to charges of assault and battery, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Rudolph will not have a criminal record if he stays out of trouble for three years but faces 2½ years in jail if he violates probation.

"We didn't want them to lock him up and throw away the key," the victim's mother told the Boston Herald. "We just wanted him to pay some penalty. He stabbed my son and didn't do one day in jail."