EXCLUSIVE: Los Angeles firefighter gets jail time in assault, speaks to ABC7 after sentencing

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Former Los Angeles city firefighter Ian Eulian was sentenced to 180 days in jail Tuesday for assaulting a woman who fed stray cats in his West Adams neighborhood in 2013.

"It's an unfortunate situation and it came down to this," Eulian said.

In an exclusive interview, Eulian told Eyewitness News that even though he could have been given a maximum seven-year prison sentence for his crime, he's still very disappointed he received jail time at all.

"I've never led my life to even be in a situation like this, so to say I'm catching a break it's hard to say that when I never saw myself in jail or in court or arrested. My record has been extremely clean for 39 years," said Eulian, who was found guilty in May of assault and battery and causing great bodily injury.

Just before sentencing, Eulian addressed the court, looking directly at Rebecca Stafford, and apologized for attacking her nearly two years ago. The attack, which was captured by a surveillance camera, was played repeatedly during the trial and showed the confrontation between Eulian and his mother, Lonieta Fontaine, against Stafford.

"Do I regret what I did? Yeah, absolutely, I regret what I did. I am sorry for what I did," he said.

Eulian was also sentenced Tuesday to three years' probation, 25 days of Caltrans work and one year of anger-management classes.

Stafford says even though it took a second trial for a jury to convict Eulian, she did not want to see him behind bars.

"I feel like he's lost a lot," Stafford said.

She even told the judge in court Tuesday that she thought probation and anger-management classes were enough. However, she says she was still angry for being blamed by Eulian for instigating the videotaped confrontation. That is until he apologized in court Tuesday.

"That's kind of what I wanted from the beginning really was just an apology and an acknowledgement that it wasn't my fault basically," Stafford said.

According to his attorney, Eulian has resigned from the Los Angeles Fire Department. He remains free on $20,000 bail pending his appeal.

"There's some hope so we'll see where it goes from there, and then we'll make it work," Eulian said, adding that he believes his chapter in firefighting is closed.