Former Permian teacher Robert Young and his fiancée gasped loudly Thursday afternoon when the jury foreperson announced he was acquitted on two counts of improper relationship between educator and student.

“We can begin our life,” his fiancée Shandi White said. Young, 44, declined to comment. He was facing between two and 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine if convicted on the charges.

Young has been battling the charges for nearly four years after authorities started investigating a possible relationship between Young and a then-18-year-old student.

The three-day trial brought with it surprising revelations from the young woman, who defense attorney Rick Navarrete said hadn’t come forward with many of the accusations until Wednesday during her testimony.

Although she originally told investigators she and Young had kissed and engaged in heavy petting, the woman told the jury Wednesday that they also had oral sex, that he repeatedly pushed her to have sex and that he bought alcohol for her.

The woman, who broke up with Young in early June 2010 shortly after the investigation started, also said Young told several people to lie about their relationship to say it happened after school ended.

“It shocked me that she got up here and said things she never even alluded to before,” Navarrete said.

Even though Young was acquitted, the question remains exactly what happened between him and the young woman leading up to his arrest in June 2010.

It’s clear from a video interview of him by police and by her testimony that the two became friends early in the spring of 2010. After becoming increasingly friendlier, at some point she began to comfort him via messaging while on the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft and on Facebook.

The two would exchange romantic letters, explaining how happy they were when they were together. In one of Young’s messages repeatedly referred to by prosecutors, he described her eyes and lips, and the desire he had when her smell lingered on him.

Young repeatedly said in his video interview that he couldn’t recall the exact dates of accused sexual contact, but neither person denies the relationship turned into a sexual one at some point.

“(She) and I had a friendship. It developed quickly into an inappropriate relationship with a student, I am aware of that,” Young said in his video interview.

But Navarrete tried his best to put the relationship into context during his closing arguments.

“Inappropriate is not the same as improper,” Navarrete said.

In the law, the term improper is used to define the illegal relationship, while Navarrete attempted to define inappropriate some state that was less severe than improper.

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland, speaking in the stead of Assistant District Attorneys Chris Fostel and Clay George who prosecuted the case, said he knew the case was going to be tough from the beginning and that the verdict is not a surprise to him.

Bland said the inconsistencies with the woman’s testimony were well-known and that he appreciates the jury’s verdict.

“(Purported victims) will often tell you new stuff,” Bland said. “This was embarrassing to her and she didn’t want to talk about it. I appreciate her having the strength to come forward.”

However, Bland said the case could have come to a conclusion much more suitable to his office if a plea deal had been accepted nearly a year ago.

Young was scheduled to accept a plea deal July 11 that would have sentenced him to seven years probation and deferred adjudication.

Navarrete said at the time, Young was willing to take a plea deal when it became apparent the case wouldn’t be dismissed.

Bland said after Young and Judge James Rush agreed to move forward with the plea deal, Rush subsequently rejected the deal in court that day.

Rush refused to comment about the plea deal.

A second plea deal in the works never made it to a hearing, Bland said.

Young has been accused of starting a relationship with the 18-year-old Permian student in May 2010, just days before she was set to graduate.

The young woman was not a student in any of Young’s classes.

Young was placed on administrative leave June 21, 2010, amid the investigation. A probable cause affidavit filed in 2010 stated Young would pick up the young woman in his truck about three times a week and drive around from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., kissing and engaging in heavy petting.

He was arrested June 29, and his contract was terminated July 20, 2010. He began teaching in Ector County in 1992, and had been a Pre-AP Algebra II and AP Calculus teacher at Permian.

After being released from the Midland County Detention Center on a $20,000 bond, Young has had a number of hearings in Ector County during the past three years.

Young still has a valid teaching license for secondary mathematics, although the State Board for Educator Certification has attached a notation to the license stating he is under investigation by the board’s disciplinary unit.