Former Tupelo High School teacher sentenced for sex crimes

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A former Tupelo High School teacher will do a decade in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to a relationship with a student.

Braden Bishop entered the pleas Friday to one count of sexual battery and one count of fondling.

The plea agreement called for a 30-year sentence with 20 suspended on the sexual battery charge and a 15-year suspended sentence on the fondling count.

State law required Bishop to serve each day of the 10-year sentence.

His attorney Tony Farese said the original five-count indictment could have potentially led to up to a sentence well over 100 years day for day had the case gone to trial and ended with a conviction.

Bishop was arrested in November 2018