A Huntington Beach couple, both retired teachers, pleaded guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old male high school student.
Daniel Alma Shepard, 63, and his wife, Gay Davidson-Shepard, 60, are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27.
The couple accepted a plea bargain offer from Orange County Superior Court Judge John S. Adams on Thursday, according to Deputy District Attorney Nicole Varner, who plans to file a motion objecting to the deal.
Adams is expected to sentence the pair to three years of formal probation, counseling and 60 days of community service, Varner said.
Technically, Shepard will be sentenced to two years in prison and Davidson-Shepard will be sentenced to four years in prison, but those orders will be suspended as long as the two complete probation. If they violate probation they will have to do the prison time, Varner said.
When the pair had their sexual relationship with the victim, Davidson-Shepard was a teacher at Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach and Daniel Shepard taught at Westminster High School, where the boy was a student, Varner said.
The couple invited the boy to their home to drink alcohol, play board games and watch movies in March 2009, according to prosecutors.
The two got the boy to join them nude in a hot tub at their home in April 2009, according to prosecutors. Davidson-Shepard performed oral sex on the boy and her husband when they got out of the water, prosecutors said.
The two continued their sexual relationship with the boy after he turned 18, Varner said.
Shepard had sexual relations with the victim until September 2009 and Davidson-Shepard continued until December 2009, prosecutors said.
The student told his mother what happened in March of last year and the mother contacted Westminster police.
In November, while she was out of custody, Davidson-Shepard violated a court order by calling and sending text messages to the victim, Varner said.
Shepard pleaded guilty to two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, a felony count of sodomy with someone younger than 18 and a misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Davidson-Shepard pleaded guilty to three felony counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse, sodomy with someone younger than 18, oral copulation of a minor and a misdemeanor count each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and violating a protective order.
If convicted at trial, Shepard would have faced up to five years and four months in prison. Davidson-Shepard would face up to nine years and 10 months in prison, Varner said.
