A contentious trial and a showdown between Orem city and a superstar defense attorney from Los Angeles were averted when a plea deal was reached in the case of a 70-year-old woman who grabbed international headlines after she was arrested in a dispute over her unwatered lawn.

At a change of plea hearing at Orem's 4th District Court on Friday, Betty Perry pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct as an infraction, a minor offense that carries no possibility of jail time. Perry had previously been charged with a zoning violation and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

Under the terms of the deal, Perry will have to pay a $100 fine and spend six months on court probation. Her probation will be with the court, not Adult Probation and Parole, meaning she will not have to report to a probation officer and will simply have to keep the court apprised of her address, break no laws and pay all ordered fines.

Orem city prosecutor Andrew Peterson said the city was not interested in sentencing Perry to jail, and wanted only to secure a conviction from her arrest.

"I think each side can really claim victory. They certainly got a very good plea bargain," Peterson said. "And we got what we wanted, which was a conviction that described her disrespectful and dangerous behavior with the officer."

Perry was arrested in July after an officer with the Orem police department's Neighborhood Preservation Unit attempted to give her a ticket for not watering her dead, brown lawn. According to police, Perry refused to give her name to Officer Jim Flygare, and she resisted when he tried to arrest her for it. During the altercation, Perry fell, suffering cuts and bruises.

Attorneys have been discussing possible plea deals for a while, Peterson said, but they reached a breakthrough on Wednesday when they decided that the resisting arrest charge could be reduced to disorderly conduct. Peterson said the zoning violation charge would have been dropped regardless of whether a plea deal was reached because Perry started watering her lawn after the arrest, bringing it into compliance with the city's zoning statutes.

Paige Benjamin, Perry's defense attorney, did not return messages seeking comment on the plea deal.

As part of the deal, Perry also waived all rights to a potential lawsuit against the city. There was speculation that Perry would file a civil suit against Orem city after high-profile Los Angeles-based defense attorney Gloria Allred began representing her as a victims rights advocate.

During a speech after Perry's arraignment in September, Allred castigated the city for its treatment of the 70-year-old grandmother and emphasized that she had won hundreds of millions of dollars for her clients throughout her career, though no mention was ever made of a suit against the city.

On Monday, Allred was accredited by the court to serve as a member of Perry's defense team. She could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Peterson described the lawsuit waiver as a minor detail. He said the city was confident it would have prevailed in any civil suit brought by Perry because Flygare did nothing wrong, and because the officer and the city have government immunity from such lawsuits.

"We were never really interested in considering or worrying about a civil suit. It just never entered our calculations at all, knowing that we would've prevailed no matter what," Peterson said.

Peterson said he was satisfied with the case that the city had prepared against Perry, but it was preferable to not go to trial, which is always a risk for both sides. Because of the media attention the case has drawn -- news outlets from as far away as Great Britain and Taiwan reported the story, and it received a great deal of coverage within Utah -- there had been concerns over finding impartial jurors. Out of about 80 prospective jurors who filled out questionnaires, about 60 were dismissed as having potential biases about the case.

"One quarter of the original jurors is not an optimistic number," Peterson said.

Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn said he was happy to see the case come to an end, especially after the tremendous amount of attention it received.

"It's been a difficult experience for everyone involved, and I think there has been much to be learned from it," Washburn said. "We're grateful that it's been resolved."

• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or jduda@heraldextra.com.