LETCHER COUNTY – Last month, a former Magoffin County teacher pleaded guilty to third-degree unlawful transaction with a minor, taking a plea deal for probation.
According to court records released this week from a hearing held in Letcher County on April 23, Anthony Taulbee, 49, of Salyersville, pleaded guilty to the amended (now misdemeanor) charge of unlawful transaction with a minor, third degree. With the plea deal, the charge of first-degree sexual abuse was dismissed and third-degree rape was amended down to the charge he pleaded guilty to.
The offenses were committed on or about March 1 through August 12, 2018, according to the plea agreement.
Special Judge James W. Craft, II, upheld the agreement, sentencing Taulbee to 12 months imprisonment, to be probated for two years, and to pay court costs of $133.
A jury trial was set for June 16 in the case.
In March Taulbee was the defendant in a similar trial in Johnson County, facing two counts of third-degree rape (Class D felonies) and third-degree sodomy (Class D felony), with the jury inevitably finding him not guilty of the charges after a two-day trial.
Taulbee was first indicted in Magoffin County Circuit Court in July 2023 and charged with one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of third-degree rape, both Class D felonies. According to the indictment, on or about March 1 through June 1, 2018, Taulbee allegedly subjected another person to sexual contact by forcible compulsion.
In 2018 when the crimes were alleged to have occurred, Taulbee was employed by Magoffin County Schools and was a high school criminal justice teacher.
Editor’s Note: The indictment or charge of a person by a grand jury or otherwise is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
