Ex-Michigan music professor is sentenced to jail for baby intercourse allegations

After pleading responsible transporting a lady throughout state strains for intercourse, a former College of Michigan violin professor was sentenced to five-years in jail

Federal prosecutors said that the federal choose who sentenced Stephen Shipps (69) on Thursday additionally ordered him to pay $120,000 in restitution for his sufferer. Shipps made an apology, and his lawyer requested for no imprisonment time.

Shipps pleaded responsible to the November cost of transporting a lady over state strains with intent to have interaction sexual conduct. In keeping with the costs, Shipps was accused of transporting a lady throughout state borders a number of instances between February 2002 and July 2002 within the hope of getting intercourse.

In keeping with courtroom paperwork, the lady was born in 1985.

Shipps was indicted in October 2020, and he was arrested in Ann Arbor. This arrest got here two years after the college put the long-serving professor on paid depart. Former college students had accused him of sexual misconduct throughout his time as a instructor in Nebraska and North Carolina within the Seventies and 80s.

James C. Harris III, appearing particular agent in Cost of Homeland Safety Investigations, Detroit, said that Shipps’ sentence will ship a powerful message to different trusting people you could be held accountable for preying on the weak.

The College of Michigan has been topic to intense scrutiny concerning its safety towards sexual misconduct. In 2020, a whole bunch of males claimed they have been sexually assaulted and abused by late Robert Anderson . Anderson was a campus doctor for nearly 40 years. In 2008, he died. The college introduced a $490million settlement with Anderson.

From 1989 to his retirement in 2019, Shipps was a professor on the College of Michigan’s Faculty of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Shipps additionally directed a preparatory music program for kids.

Federal authorities said that Shipps was additionally on the schools of Indiana College and the North Carolina Faculty of the Arts.