By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 32-year-old former Birmingham police officer who is facing allegations he sexually abused an Alabaster child is set to appear in court in early 2018, after his case was recently continued in Shelby County Circuit Court.

Joshua Richard Herbinger, who lists an address on First Place in Pleasant Grove and listed an address in Alabaster when he was arrested, originally was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge William Bostick on Nov. 6, but his hearing was continued until 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 8, 2018.

In September 2015, Herbinger was indicted on four felony counts of sexual abuse of a child younger than 12 and one felony count of first-degree rape.

Herbinger had been a Birmingham police officer for about nine years before he was terminated from the position on Oct. 24, 2014.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Herbinger on Oct. 20, 2014, and charged him with the first-degree rape charge after an alleged incident involving an adult victim, according to Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney.

When Herbinger was arrested on Oct. 20, 2014, he was out on bond for four counts of sexual abuse of a child younger than 12, which were brought against him by Alabaster police on Oct. 9, 2014.

According to Rigney, the child sex abuse charges came after a female student in Alabaster notified her school resource officer of the allegations.

According to his arrest warrants, Herbinger’s charges stemmed from multiple incidents between Jan. 1, 2011 and Oct. 7, 2014, during which he allegedly “touched (the victim’s) privates.”

Sexual abuse of a child younger than 12 is a Class B felony, and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison upon conviction. First-degree rape is a Class A felony, and is punishable by up to life in prison upon conviction.

Herbinger has been out of jail on bond since 2014.