Brad Zinn

bzinn@newsleader.com

STAUNTON - A Churchville woman snagged by county investigators with the help of a recorded phone call was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for raping a boy in 1992.

Because the rape took place before Virginia's truth-in-sentencing was enacted in the mid-1990s, Maybelle E. Acord, 57, will be eligible for parole and will not have to serve the minimum 85 percent of her prison term.

Acord pleaded guilty to the rape charge in January during a hearing in Augusta County Circuit Court.

The victim, now in his mid-30s, came forward in December 2014 with allegations that Acord raped him as a young boy. In one instance, Acord asked the boy to put lotion on her and she in turn did the same to him, fondling the boy in the process, according to evidence presented at her January hearing.

Acord had sex with the boy when he was a sixth-grade student.

After the victim reported the rape last year, he was asked to call Acord while an Augusta County investigator recorded the phone conversation. In the call, Acord admitted to having sexual relations with the boy. Authorities charged her in May.

Acord denied having sex with the boy before he was a teenager, and told authorities he was 15 when they had sex. She initially blamed the boy, claiming he would enter her bedroom and initiate sex, evidence showed. However, while Acord was briefly jailed following her arrest, she admitted to an inmate the victim was 12 years old when she raped him, a prosecutor said.

Acord, who had been free on bond, is being held at Middle River Regional Jail pending her transfer to the Virginia Department of Corrections.

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