TEXARKANA, Texas–A former Atlanta, Texas, high school teacher who was found guilty of sexual misconduct with male students by a Cass County jury and sentenced to 60 years in prison last year was denied his bid for a new trial Monday by a state appellate court headquartered in Texarkana.
Taureaus Alvaro Maxwell, 32, was convicted last August of four counts of indecency with a child by contact and four counts of improper relationship between educator and student. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years on each count and three of the terms were ordered to run consecutively, giving him a 60-year total sentence.
The Sixth District Court of Appeals in Texarkana issued an opinion Monday which rejected Maxwell’s argument that there had not been enough evidence to support the jury’s conclusion that he was guilty.
The court noted that the first student to come forward had been subjected to repeated unwanted touching from Maxwell and had confided in friends. Maxwell had touched the boy’s thighs and his genitals over his clothing while the child was at his desk in the classroom, which was laid out with the desks facing a whiteboard in the front of the room and the instructor’s desk behind the students.
Maxwell had groped that victim after keeping him after class and locking the door. As the first allegations against him became public, more students began coming forward, detailing abuse that had occurred at least since 2022, the opinion said.
Maxwell used the social media platform Instagram to harass male students, who had expressed surprise at Maxwell’s requests for pictures of their genitalia and statements like, “Hey honey,” and “Do you love me,” the opinion said.
One student secretly recorded a conversation during which Maxwell asked for a photo of his penis, the opinion said, noting that four students in total had testified regarding unwanted touching.
In his appeal, Maxwell had argued that the students couldn’t be believed because the some of the sexual abuse occurred in a classroom “rife with potential witnesses.”
The court said that the jury was “within its purview as the factfinder” to believe the students.
Maxwell is currently being held in the Estes Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Venus, Texas.
