A former Warwick High School band director pleaded guilty Friday to having a series of sexual trysts with a student between 2006 and 2008.

Todd Sheerer pleaded to six misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors for having the relationship, beginning in January 2006, when the female student was 15. The victim is now 18 years old.

Sheerer, who lived on Coronet Avenue but has been in Lancaster County Prison since May, wore a blue shirt with black pants while admitting to the crimes before Lancaster County Judge Margaret C. Miller.

Sheerer will be sentenced after a background check is completed and submitted to the judge within 60 days. Miller told Sheerer he faces a maximum of 30 years in prison for the charges.

Defense attorney Merrill Spahn said he and his client will reserve lengthy comment for the sentencing hearing, but asked Miller Friday to consider Sheerer's actions as a "single course of conduct" upon sentencing.

Sheerer was charged with several counts because the relationship took place in five separate municipalities, Spahn said. "Municipal boundaries … is why there is more than one charge," he told the judge.

Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield outlined the encounters, which took place at Warwick High School and in parked vehicles off campus.

Spahn asked that Miller not lump Sheerer with other recently charged high school officials. Spahn said actions of those officials are far more "heinous" than the conduct of his client.

May, a former Warwick athletic coach, is serving a 8½- to 30-year prison term for having a sexual relationship with a student. May, labeled a sexually violent predator by a county judge, pleaded guilty to more than a dozen sex crimes including statutory sexual assault.

Norman McMillan III, former choir director at McCaskey, and Robert Richards, former band director at Columbia High School, also are charged with statutory sexual assault and other offenses.

Their cases are pending.

Spahn said Sheerer's crimes are "inherently different."

Spahn didn't comment on what led to the guilty plea. He said there will be lengthy testimony at the sentencing hearing from himself and Sheerer.

When asked by Miller for comment Friday, Sheerer said, "I wish to wait until sentencing, your honor."

The alleged relationship between Sheerer and student was exposed when Manheim Township police found the pair in the back seat of a car in a parking lot on Oregon Pike.

Sheerer's pants were unzipped and he lied to police about the girl's age, investigators said.

According to Mansfield's arguments, Sheerer performed sexual acts on the student on several occasions. He also asked the girl to lift her shirt or skirt to expose herself to him while on school property, according to testimony.

Sheerer's wife wept while Mansfield outlined the encounters.

After the hearing, Sheerer was handcuffed and escorted by sheriff's deputies to a holding cell. He was to be remanded back to Lancaster County Prison later in the afternoon.

E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com