UPDATE: Tucker coach released on bond
Henrico County police
Leighton, who surrendered to Henrico Police yesterday, faces five felony charges.
Published: May 20, 2009
Updated: May 20, 2009
J.R. Tucker High School’s former head football coach was released on $50,000 bond this afternoon and faces an August preliminary hearing on felony sex-related charges involving two students.
William Macgregor “Mac” Leighton, 31, appeared distraught but eager to meet bond conditions when he appeared on a video from the Henrico Jail this morning.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Deana Malek asked for no bond and called Leighton a “threat to society.“
But Leighton’s lawyer, Michele Chiocca, described the coach and teacher as a man with no history of previous criminal activity and with ties to the community, and as someone who is no flight risk. Leighton’s wife was in the courtroom during the brief proceedings.
He is charged with five felony counts involving alleged relationships he had with two students, 15 and 17. Malek said both students provided sexually explicit pictures to Leighton and the older student had unspecified sexual contact with him.
She also said he solicited sexual acts with both students.
Leighton remains formally employed with the Henrico School system but is no longer teaching or coaching, his lawyer said.
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Reader Reactions
Southerngirl,Some of your points are well taken BUT; First, the girls sent pictures not text messages- if they didn’t show their face how would he know who they were of? Maybe he thought a friend sent them to him as a joke, I get “pictures” from “friends” from time to time. Second, You haven’t sat in court and heard some of these cases, charges are often filed based on he said/she said and what later ends up being false information. If the girls stories are true I hope the get justice and any help they need. If the charges are false they will pay.
Here is the real lesson…DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BECOMING A TEACHER! Crap pay, horrible working conditions, litigious parents, and hormone laden boys and girls just itching to cause trouble for someone. Tell me if any of you would want this job…
For all of you saying the girls are at fault as well… well, obviously. Either way, it is illegal and he is the adult in this situation.
It’s nice to see that most comments are in support of “INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY”. The others seem to forget about the Chesterfield teacher that was accused of assulting students earlier this year, he was found “NOT GUILTY”, THE STORY WAS FALSE AND HIS CAREER AND REPUTATION RUINED! If this guy is guilty he will pay, in jail even thugs, cheats, drug dealers/addicts and even killers don’t like child molesters. Working in the court system I’ve seen people who have done bad things, on the flip side I’ve seen lies of bad things said against innocent people. I’m not supporting the teacher, I’m supporting the process. Prove his guilt, don’t just think he’s guilty!!
You have to be smart and learn from reading the news of others that had this happen to them. Don’t get involved even a little with female students
Innocent until proven but having taught some myself in high school you will as a male be faced with females who wear inappropriate clothing, make a game out of revealing much of what should not be revealed and you have to learn to move to different positions, walk around a room teach from the side sometimes, etc. Any teacher will tell you that it isn’t only the boys who are explicit teases. Some of the most brazen when I subbed and then taught a long term ap English class for bright kids were, in fact, the young high school senior ladies. Don’t know what it was like 40 years ago but it is very different now and some connection has gone sour between values and modesty today. Teach some, you’ll see what I mean fairly soon.
Lance
I just wanted to say, that I was a student under coach leighton and I cannot believe this is happening. I wanted to say that I know it says he requested the girls photos from Tucker, but I think that if they didnt want to send the pictures then they shouldnt have. Honestly, I think that the girls AND Leighton are to blame if everything is true. I feel sorry for the families that are going through this. I just hope that the real truth comes out, because a lot of rumors have been floating around to make matters worse. I think that Leighton wouldn’t put everything on the line for two teenagers, but if he did then it was very stupid on his part. We will have to wait and see what the courts say about it,and then I will pass real judgement.
I’ll have to agree with dee65, if you think these 15,16,17 year old’s are innocent little angels you either do not have teenagers or have your head deep in the sand. These teachers need to be strong enough to resist the tug of these hormone laden pubescent’s though….or face the consequences.
As a coach myself, I see way too much inappropiate non verbal communication with both students and adults. It’s more the younger adults that has this problem because they are not much more socially mature than the students. When you remove staple items such as manners & styles of dress for students and adults, then you began to muddy the waters so to speak. My question is this…......why would a grown man even consider a teenager when very good looking, educated, hard-working, smart grown women outnumber grown men at an alarming rate these days. So to even carry yourself inappropiately is insane. I go into some of the schools and they are flooded with so-called counselors and some of these people should be no where near a teenager whose hormones are going crazy. the whole system has to change. Starts with non-negotiables in conduct first.
I am not saying the guy is guilty or not guilty. I do know this, the culture has to change or we are headed for mass chaos in the schools.
You heard it hear first!
OH! if he is guilty, then he should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. If he is innocent, then there should be a large article giving him his reputation back.
First, off from personal experience girls in high school are not “children” and they are most certainly not “fragile”. I graduated in 1985 and my senior year we got a very “hot” math teacher. Girls were paying big money to other girls in his class so they would drop the class and they could get in. They baked him cookies and would ask to be tutored by him. He was a print model for the local men’s wear store and he knew what these girls were doing. He also stayed very far away from them even calling parents and letting them know of their “little girls” actions. Parents need to get a clue and I’m not saying he isn’t guilty but I know there’s always two sides to a story and if these girls were taught self respect why did they send him explicit nude photos of themselves? If sexting is popular among the high school student body , why is it a surprise to anyone that teachers or other adults wouldn’t be involved.
Society as a whole doesn’t teach self-respect to neither sex, males or females. This kind of behavior has been around forever its just now more in the open because of technology. A person male/female who respects themselves doesn’t need validation through sexual exploits. In this case wait for the full facts to come out, even if he’s done this before and he is guilty in this country you’re innocent until proven guilty and that’s how the laws are written not necessarily what everyone likes.
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