A 57-year-old former Ann Arbor teacher and coach, who admits he expected to have sex with a child when he was caught in a sting last year, was sent to prison today, May 17.

Macomb County Circuit Judge Michael E. Servitto, based on a plea agreement, sentenced Gerald E. Holley of Ann Arbor to two years in prison, near the minimum allowed by sentencing guidelines.

Holley pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child sexually abusive activity, each count punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and one felony count of using a computer to communicate with another to commit a crime.

In exchange for his guilty plea on the charges, the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office agreed to recommend a lighter sentence.

Had Servitto sentenced Holley to a prison term greater than the minimum guidelines established, Holley would have had the option to retract his guilty plea and take the case to trial, based on the plea agreement.

Holley, who was fired as a teacher for Ann Arbor Public Schools in November, was accused of trolling the internet for children, seeking sex, according to police. The teacher struck up an online conversation with an undercover detective posing as a child and was arrested Oct. 11, 2017 in Clinton Township, when he arrived at a scheduled meeting with the child he believed he had contacted, police said.

Holley was hired as a full-time teacher at Ann Arbor Public Schools in 1989, after teaching at Saint Alphonsus High School in Dearborn for four years.

He taught physical education and science classes at Huron High School and Pioneer High School throughout his career, and he most recently was a science teacher at Pioneer.

Holley received positive evaluations of his teaching over the years, and he was recommended for tenure in 1991.

File photo by Melanie Maxwell

His coaching career at Ann Arbor Public Schools started as an assistant football coach and head JV football coach at Huron, as well as being the seventh grade boys basketball coach at Clague Middle School in the late '80s and early '90s.

He was hired as head baseball coach at Huron High School in 1993 and has been the head baseball coach at Pioneer since 1995. Holley also received positive reviews of his coaching performance throughout his career, and he was named the Michigan Division I baseball coach of the year in 2004.