COLUMBIANA, Ala. — A retired Shelby County elementary school teacher was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison without parole after entering a guilty plea to multiple charges of sexually abusing students throughout his long teaching career.
Court records show former fourth-grade teacher Danny Acker signed documents pleading guilty to eight sex abuse charges, under an agreement with prosecutors.
A judge also said Acker, 50, will have to serve 10 years on court monitoring after his prison sentence ends, plus register as a sex offender.
Acker retired in 2009 after 25 years of teaching and driving school buses in Shelby County, near Birmingham. Police say the former youth pastor admitted molesting about 20 girls throughout his career, but he couldn't recall all their names.
Acker was indicted on eight separate charges involving six young girls.
Acker was first accused of abusing a student in 1991, but grand jurors failed to indict him and school board members allowed him to return to the classroom after a review. Another former student made similar allegations against Acker around the first of this year, resulting in his indictment on charges of abusing her and additional victims, including the now-grown woman from the 1991 investigation.
St. Clair County District Attorney Richard Minor, serving as a special prosecutor in the case, said he was glad that the victim in the 1991 case finally was vindicated.
"As an 11-year-old child sexually abused by her teacher, (she) continued to be ridiculed by those in her community who would not accept the truth," he said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it took the abuse of others for them to believe her."
While Acker's father is a longtime educator and county commissioner in Shelby County, Alabaster police who investigated the case said there was no indication Danny Acker received preferential treatment from school officials after the original allegations were made public.
Acker taught at Creek View Elementary and Thompson Intermediate schools before retiring. He was on the school system's payroll as a substitute bus driver until he was arrested.