A former St. Edward's Catholic School teacher has accepted a 15-year prison sentence for molesting two students more than 10 years ago.

Sentencing papers filed Monday by deputy prosecutor Michael Wright show Michael Blaine Massey, 50, pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault and second-degree sexual assault, each charge representing one of the accusers, in exchange for the 15-year term from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.

The charges together carry a maximum of 50 years in prison. Under the plea agreement negotiated by defense attorney Bill James, prosecutors dropped a second sexual-assault charge involving the second student.

The first victim, a 27-year-old man, went to Little Rock police in June 2018 to report how Massey had repeatedly taken advantage of him during the 2004 school year when he was 13 at the now-closed school at 805 Sherman St., court filings show.

Massey was a middle-school math and science teacher but his contract was not renewed in 2006 for professional reasons, school officials told police, saying they never had any serious concerns about his behavior with students.

According to police reports, the victim told investigator Eric Barnes that Massey had been his homeroom teacher in seventh grade and that he had taken to confiding in Massey about his difficult home life. The man said he was often depressed but that Massey "made me feel like someone cared about what was going on and I didn't have that."

But Massey turned the conversations into questions about how the victim was going through puberty and recommending that he masturbate to avoid premarital sex. Massey fondled him and would masturbate in front of him in encounters the teacher arranged in the school restrooms.

The man told police eventually Massey got scared and stopped abusing him. He said he avoided Massey the next school year but kept in contact with Massey sporadically for the next few years.

The victim said he never went to authorities before because he was "ashamed and disgusted that he was spineless" and did not think people would believe him. He said he was motivated to step forward because he had learned that Massey had been working with children at another Catholic church.

The man's accusations led to Massey's initial arrest in September 2018, but the investigation turned up another victim, also 27, who told police in February that Massey had been his teacher for the three years he was at St. Edward's but only began to molest him after he turned 14 and had started ninth grade in August 2006.

The man said Massey had been his unofficial mentor and the sexual contact began with horseplay while he was supposed to be doing his homework, and that led to Massey fondling him.

He said Massey continued to molest him, including oral sex, regularly though high school.

The encounters ended when the victim graduated, and Massey apologized for what he had done, the man told police. They continued to stay friendly for years, but the victim said he broke off contact with Massey after learning that police were investigating the first victim's accusations, the man told police. He said he had thought he was the only one Massey had abused.

The man, now married, said he never disclosed his abuse before, because he was embarrassed and scared about what other people would think about him.

Police also interviewed a classmate of the victims who described an encounter with Massey that occurred after graduation. He told detectives that Massey asked to check his pulse in preparation for a camping trip, and that Massey performed the check around his genitals, an encounter that left him uncomfortable. He also told police that Massey had regularly messaged him about masturbation, describing the topic as a fixation of Massey's.

Detectives also talked to a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by Massey over the course of several years when she was a child and Massey would have been in his early teens.

Police also spoke with another accuser who described a sexual encounter with Massey in another city.

Metro on 11/06/2019