MIAMI – A veteran Miami-Dade County teacher has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child, cementing a prison sentence but allowing him to avoid prosecution on more than a dozen other charges.
In return for his guilty plea Thursday morning, Wendell Nibbs, 53, was sentenced to eight years in prison, followed by 10 years of sex offender probation and a lifetime designation as a sexual predator.
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Prosecutors agreed to drop more than a dozen other charges against Nibbs, who had been accused of dozens of incidents by female students describing patterns of sexually charged behavior ranging from inappropriate to criminal.
Police first arrested Nibbs in November 2017 or two counts of sexual battery on a child. He had been working as a physical education teacher at Brownsville Middle School, where the victims were students.
He was arrested again last March on two more charges.
Their accounts detailed his explicit comments, coercion and repeated sex inside a classroom at Brownsville Middle School. Evidence involved texts and photographs.
Nibbs had already faced five other allegations of sexual misconduct before he was arrested, dating back to spring 2004. In all, nine girls would accuse their teacher of sexual behavior over his 15 years working as a Miami-Dade County public school teacher.
His case prompted state education officials to review how and why Nibbs was allowed to remain a teacher with Miami Dade County Public Schools despite the investigations into his behavior with students.
Several of Nibbs’ accusers and victims, now in high school, were in the courtroom for the plea and sentencing. They did not speak publicly.