Shawn Douglas Risener, 50, a former dean at an Irving Independent School District magnet school, pleaded guilty Thursday to indecency with a child and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Judge Thomas West of 19th State District Court stacked that nine-year term onto an eight-year prison sentence Risener received after a jury trial in November 2019 at which he was convicted on six counts of indecency with a child by contact.
Then-Judge Ralph Strother "stacked" the six counts, or ordered Risener to serve the sentences consecutively, and Risener left court two years ago thinking he would serve 48 years in prison. Later, however, court officials realized the law in effect at the time Risener committed the offenses did not allow for the stacking of counts in child sexual abuse cases.
"It was a technicality in the law and the law did not retroactively apply," prosecutor Sydney Tuggle said. "These offenses occurred one year before the law changed that allowed the stacking of counts in child sex offense. Although the offenses warranted that type of punishment, that was not what the law would allow. The legislators have since understood the error of their ways and changed it."
The sentencing error forced court officials to amend the judgment against Risener, Tuggle said. West ordered Risener to serve the new sentence consecutively with the 2019 sentence, stacking the terms for a total of 17 years in prison.
Risener's attorney, Josh Tetens, said Risener pleaded guilty Thursday "after careful consideration of his rights and consultations with several attorneys, brining closure for all involved." Tuggle said Risener is "no longer in the shadows because of the bravery of two grown men."
"Both survivors endured abuse in their younger years and carried that into adulthood when they finally were able to disclose what the defendant did to them," Tuggle said. "I could not be more proud of both of these men for speaking out and standing up repeatedly for themselves, each other and for this process. They are finally free of this predator and in their words, it is not the evil in the world that we should fear, it is the indifference of good people."
Testimony from Risener's trial revealed he befriended young boys while living with relatives in McGregor and attending church and out-of-state church camps with them. Testimony showed he abused at least eight boys during that time frame who were unwilling to come forward.
One of the victims who did come forward, who was 39 at the time of Risener's trial and living in California, testified he decided to report the abuse after coming to grips with his own sexuality. He said he felt obligated to act after learning Risener was an educator at a public school with access to young boys.
He alerted officials at the Church of Christ in Irving, where Risener was a member, and demanded they confront Risener about the abuse. Church officials asked that Risener confess his sins to the congregation, which he did in 2013 in a letter the minister read aloud to about 100 church members. But they did not report the abuse to police, and Risener continued working in public schools. “We just wanted him to get right with the Lord,” Bruce Bailey, an elder at the Irving church, testified at Risener's trial. "It didn’t have anything to do with criminality. It was more spiritual guidance.”
The man said he contacted Irving school officials, who called police and initiated an investigation of their own. They suspended Risener before firing him after his arrest by McLennan County sheriff’s deputies in 2017.
