RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) – A sex offender jailed earlier this month on a probation violation charge was in court a second time last week after being accused of sending a love letter to one of his victims.

Justin M. Canales, 22, appeared Thursday in Vermont District Court in Rutland and denied he sent the letter from jail to a teenage girl he is barred from contacting.

Earlier this month Canales was ordered jailed without bail on an earlier probation violation allegation. Judge Patricia Zimmerman on Thursday ordered that Canales remain held without bail pending hearings on both matters.

According to court records, on Sept. 2 the parents of a 17-year-old girl called Canales’ probation officer, reporting Canales had sent a letter to their daughter, whom Canales is barred from contacting as part of his probation.

Canales was convicted in December 2003 after pleading no contest to a sexual assault charge involving a 14-year-old girl. The sex charge that Canales pleaded no contest to dates back to February 2002, when he was 18 years old.

He was sentenced on that charge in December 2003 to serve two to 10 years in jail, all suspended on probation.

As part of a plea deal, three other sexual assault charges were dismissed by prosecutors. However, he was still barred as part of his probation from contacting any of the girls he was charged with assaulting.

The latest probation violation accuses him of sending the letter to one of the girls, who is now 17.

Canales wrote in the letter that he can’t wait to get wait of jail and see her again, court records stated.