Leigh Claiborn Mahaffey, 36, of Denison, was today sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of Sexual Assault of a Child. The sentence was imposed by District Judge Rayburn Nall pursuant to a plea agreement that Mahaffey reached with the Grayson County District Attorney’s Office.
In March of 2015 the Denison Police Department received a complaint from the father of a 15 year old girl that the father had discovered inappropriate text messages from Leigh Mahaffey on his daughter’s phone. Investigators brought the girl to the Grayson County Children’s Advocacy Center where she was interviewed and she reported that Mahaffey had been having sexual contact with her for several months, since she was 14. Detectives recovered multiple text messages corroborating the girl’s account. Mahaffey, who at the time was employed as a teacher with the Sherman Independent School District, refused to give a statement to investigators.
“Mr. Mahaffey’s contact with this girl was not connected to his work as a teacher,” said Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown. “This contact happened at home, and he was connected to the victim through her family. We have been asked about inappropriate contact with children at school, but law enforcement never received any specific complaints about his contact with students. The school district cooperated with officers from the beginning.”
Mahaffey faced 2 to 20 years in prison for the offense. As part of Mahaffey’s plea, he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He will be eligible for parole after serving one half of his sentence.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Matt Johnson. Mahaffey was represented by Sherman attorney T. Scott Smith.
