Ex-Michigan music professor gets prison on child sex charges

DETROIT (AP) — A former University of Michigan violin professor has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to transporting a girl across states lines for sex. A federal judge who sentenced 69-year-old Stephen Shipps on Thursday also ordered the Ann Arbor man to pay $120,000 in restitution. Shipps offered an apology and his lawyer had asked for no prison time. The charges allege that Shipps, who retired in 2019 from the University of Michigan, took a girl across state lines several times in 2002. His indictment in 2020 came two years after the university placed the longtime professor on paid leave after former students accused him of sexual misconduct while he taught them in the 1970s and 1980s in Nebraska and North Carolina.