Criminal Justice Professor Arrested For Third Time

Radford, VA – Radford University criminal justice Professor Taj Mahon-Haft has been arrested for the third time and is now being held in jail without bail.

Mahon-Haft, 34, faces drug possession and child pornography charges and reportedly had to be Tased by local police on his most recent arrest.

In December, police investigating a burglary at his home allegedly discovered drugs at the residence, and, after a search warrant was executed, he was subsequently indicted in early March on drug-related charges. Pursuant to an additional warrant in the drug investigation, state police investigators allegedly found child pornography images on his computer and arrested him again on March 21 on 24 counts of child pornography. He was arrested for a third time on March 28 on additional charges related to hundreds of new digital images of child porn on his home and work computers that were reportedly downloaded while he was out on bail on drug charges.

According to Radford police, the professor has been “charged with 24 new counts of possession of child pornography, nine counts of production of child pornography, assault on a police officer, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest.”

At yesterday’s hearing, the prosecutor told the presiding judge, “Clearly this is a serious public safety issue. Those children were victims.” Mahon-Haft’s lawyer unsuccessfully argued for $25,000-$50,000 bail, and the professor himself requested house arrest. He is due back in court on April 12.

In a statement about Prof. Mahon-Haft’s latest arrest, Radford University said that the professor is under an indefinite suspension for the alleged misconduct. “The suspension bars the individual from the main university campus as well as any of its satellite campuses. The suspension will remain in effect pending the progress or outcome of the investigation by local authorities.”

Although sometimes you need to take these evaluations with a grain of salt, Mahon-Haft got a generally bad rating for his teaching abilities on RateMyProfessor.com, particularly for focusing more on sociology than criminal justice in his classroom. In a previous rating for his work at Washington State University, he was chided for heavy liberal bias in his lectures.

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