Retired Somerset County teacher convicted on sex assault charges

A retired Somerset County teacher has been convicted on charges he sexually assaulted a former student. He was acquitted on a rape charge, the most serious he faced.

Stephen Shaffer, 57, who now lives in Grove City, faces up to 14 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 6. He retired in 2005 and surrendered his teacher's license in November 2007.

Somerset County prosecutors charged Shaffer with assaulting the woman, now 22, in 2001 when she was an eighth-grader and he was a science teacher at Somerset Area Junior High School. The woman testified Shaffer raped her when she baby-sat at his house.