Former Badger running back Lance Smith was sentenced to 20 days in a Dane County Jail on counts for an incident that took place in July of 2007.

Smith was charged with disorderly conduct and battery after an altercation between him and his girlfriend took place outside the Open Pantry on Regent Street in Madison last summer. According to Judge Stuart A. Schwartz, who presided over the hearing Thursday, Smith repeatedly choked his girlfriend and threw her to the ground, an act Smith’s attorney called “ugly and inappropriate.”

“What I did was wrong,” Smith admitted to the judge Thursday.

After the incident, Smith was enrolled in the First Offender program, but failed to meet several of its requirements, including missing two scheduled services and failing to pay program fees.

Despite Smith’s actions a year ago, Schwartz feels Smith “has made some positive steps” but noted that cases of battery and disorderly conduct “are not to be minimized.”

Smith will begin his sentence August 20. The time for the two charges will be served concurrently.