Southwest
Texas teacher accused of having sex with student, giving perfect scores, test answers
A Houston science teacher allegedly gave test answers and perfect grades to his student during their months-long sexual relationship, a criminal complaint revealed.
Spring Branch Independent School District teacher Stephen Griffin, 46, is facing felony charges for an improper relationship with an 18-year-old student, according to a complaint filed in Harris County District Court last month. He has been released on $5,000 bond since his Dec. 7 arrest, court records show.
“There’s been no evidence of this whatsoever and we deny the charges,” his attorney, Justin Harris, told Fox News Digital on Monday. “Mr. Griffin has been a model teacher throughout his career and this has blindsided everybody. We have some trails that we’re going down that might explain where these allegations might be coming from.
“Generally when these things happen, what you read in complaints and what actually ends up happening are usually night and day from each other. They’re on the same planet, but they’re different parts of the same day. We’re waiting to see the evidence in the case. At this time it’s just allegations. If you believe the state’s allegations on their face, this is not a sexual assault case – this was a consensual act between two adults.”
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Stephen Griffin, 46, faces a felony charge for having a sexual relationship with his 18-year-old student, the Spring Branch ISD Police Department said.
Griffin’s 18-year-old student told Spring Branch ISD Police that she would meet her science teacher at a hotel and, later, at his apartment in the 2022 and 2023 school year.
The teacher was working at Memorial High School at the time and in the process of divorcing his wife, according to the complaint.
Texas Penal Code 21.12 classifies an improper relationship between an educator and student as a second-degree felony, whether the student victim is legally a minor. It is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
The student’s mother reportedly brought their relationship to administrators’ attention around Nov. 30, according to the complaint. Her daughter would share incriminating text messages between herself and Griffin with Spring Branch ISD Police later that day.
About a year earlier, on Sept. 23, 2022, the unnamed female student emailed Griffin asking to eat lunch in his classroom during his off period. The teacher emailed her his personal cellphone number after the meeting, telling her they had “similar backgrounds” and that he was available if she ever needed help or someone to confide in.
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A digital forensic investigator with the Spring Branch ISD Police Department reviewed texts and photos on the student’s phone that confirmed her relationship with 46-year-old science teacher Stephen Griffin. (Google Maps)
The pair texted back and forth for a few months, the complaint shows. In November, the student met with Griffin at the Staybridge Suites Hotel, where they had sex, according to the complaint.
They would continue to meet there, she told police, and once exchanged oral sex in his classroom. On one occasion, she and Griffin allegedly had sex in the back of her car behind a restaurant in Houston.
At that point, the student recalled, the teacher began giving her test answers in advance and 100% scores on all of her assignments. Griffin allegedly gifted her his gray staff jacket and a candle that smelled like his cologne.
Their relationship ended midsummer 2023, the student said – Griffin allegedly told her to stop contacting him because he was trying to reconcile with his wife.
A Spring Branch ISD digital forensic technician then took the student’s phone to scour her Snapchat and Signal accounts for correspondence with Griffin.
The complaint showed one Snapchat message from Griffin on an unknown date read: “We need to talk. I miss you. Can we talk? I’m suicidal right now. Call me. Ok babe. This is how it’s going to be? Don’t do this, call me. Can we talk in person? Want money? I’m about to kill myself. Please call me.”
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It is unclear whether Griffin is still employed by Memorial High School – he is still listed in the school’s online staff directory as of Jan. 8. (Google Maps)
It is unclear whether Griffin is still employed at Memorial High School – his name is still listed in the school’s staff directory on its website.
Griffin’s employment status was not immediately available from Spring Branch ISD officials.
“(This is) a personnel matter involving a criminal investigation. The district cannot confirm the identity of individuals involved at this time,” Spring Branch ISD told ABC 13 last month.
Griffin’s next court date is scheduled for Feb. 28, per online court records.
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Southwest
Savannah Guthrie spotted in NYC as search for missing mother enters sixth week with few answers
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TUCSON, Ariz. — “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie is back in New York City as the search for her missing mother enters its sixth week with little publicly known progress in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona.
Guthrie was photographed in public for the first time since her mother’s suspected abduction, alongside husband Mike Feldman and their young son in the Big Apple Sunday, days after an emotional reunion with her NBC colleagues and more than a month after her 84-year-old mother Nancy was last seen.
Nancy’s disappearance shocked the country — especially when the FBI released disturbing surveillance video of a masked man on her doorstep.
Savannah Guthrie spent weeks in Tucson with her siblings as the investigation played out — before she and her older sister, Annie, added bouquets of yellow flowers to a growing display at the foot of their mother’s driveway. She quietly flew home to New York last week.
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Savannah Guthrie is seen out in New York with her husband Michael Feldman as the “Today” show anchor makes her first public appearance more than five weeks after the suspected abduction of her mother, Nancy Guthrie. (ASPN / BACKGRID)
Sunday marked five weeks since the suspected kidnapping.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation, which is now being overseen by a task force consisting of local detectives and FBI agents.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
No suspects have been publicly identified.
A masked man who appeared on Nancy Guthrie’s Nest doorbell camera around the time authorities said she was taken is described as being of average height and build and carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack.
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Savannah Guthrie and her mother, Nancy Guthrie, are pictured Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
He appeared to be armed with a handgun as well. Law enforcement sources said he visited Nancy Guthrie’s home at least once in advance of her disappearance, wearing a similar disguise.
Other identifying details are scarce.
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The use of cadaver dogs is also on hold, according to authorities, who re-canvassed Nancy Guthrie’s neighborhood as recently as last week.
When asked if that meant they believed she is still alive, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos declined to discuss evidence in the case.
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“Anything is possible,” he told Fox News Digital.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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There’s a reward of more than $1.2 million in play for information that leads to Nancy’s recovery.
Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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Southwest
FBI subpoenas 2020 Arizona voting docs as federal push into election administration widens
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An Arizona state lawmaker revealed Monday that federal authorities subpoenaed him for records related to the 2020 election, marking the second publicly confirmed jurisdiction the Department of Justice is investigating over the matter.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican, said in a social media post he received the subpoena for material related to the state Senate’s 2020 audit last week and complied with it.
“Late last week I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County,” Petersen wrote. “The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”
The request represents an expansion of a federal probe tied to 2020 after the DOJ initially targeted Fulton County, Georgia. The development also comes as President Donald Trump has grown increasingly outspoken about election security in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms, renewing his attention on disputes stemming from the last presidential race.
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An election worker removes a ballot from an envelope to count and inspect the pages inside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Petersen made the revelation after President Donald Trump shared a Just the News report about the subpoena on Truth Social, writing, “Great!!! FBI secretly seizes election records from Arizona’s largest county as voting probe expands.”
Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the election probe to Fox News, saying the DOJ is looking at a large tranche of Arizona data from 2020 and 2024.
President Donald Trump listens during an event about the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Washington. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)
The White House directed Fox News Digital to the FBI on Monday when asked for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an elected Democrat, said the new investigation was based on claims that courts and state investigators have proven wrong.
“What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry,” Mayes said in a statement. “It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”
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Attendees listen as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speaks at an “Only Citizens Vote” bus tour rally advocating passage of the SAVE Act at Upper Senate Park outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Sept. 10, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The subpoena comes as the president increasingly focuses on election security ahead of the 2026 midterms, telling Congress in a social media post on Sunday that he will not sign any legislation into law until it passes the SAVE America Act.
The bill’s primary purpose is to require voters nationwide to show physical identification to prove citizenship to vote in federal elections. The version of the bill Trump is pushing would also ban mail-in ballots except for the military and in other extenuating circumstances.
Maricopa, Arizona’s most populous county, was a hotbed for accusations of voter fraud in 2020. Fulton County, Georgia, faced similar accusations, with the DOJ launching a separate investigation into the 2020 election earlier this year.
Trump lost Arizona in 2020 by about 0.3 percentage points. The president refused to concede, and his legal team brought a series of lawsuits alleging vote-counting irregularities, but none were successful.
Fox News’ David Spunt and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
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Southwest
Wisconsin man who fled Border Patrol checkpoint in stolen car killed after shootout in Texas, police say
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FIRST ON FOX: A Wisconsin man driving a stolen vehicle was killed Wednesday after he fled through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint and led authorities on a vehicle chase and shootout in Texas.
The incident happened at around 10:30 a.m. at the Sierra Blanca checkpoint in the Big Bend Sector between El Paso and Van Horn, a remote area.
James Douglas McMillan, 33, of Greenfield, Wis., took off from the checkpoint after a Border Patrol drug K-9 alerted to the vehicle and agents directed McMillan to pull over for a secondary search, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
A migrant walks through the Rio Grande as he crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, March 13, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. On Wednesday, a man was shot and killed by authorities near El Paso after fleeing through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. (John Moore/Getty Images)
During the car chase, McMillan opened fire out of his vehicle window at DPS troopers and other authorities from several law enforcement agencies and civilian vehicles, DPS said.
“As law enforcement returned fire, DPS Troopers performed a precision immobilization technique (PIT) maneuver and successfully stopped the suspect vehicle,” a DPS statement said.
McMillan barricaded himself in his vehicle and eventually pointed his weapon towards officers, prompting officers to open fire, authorities said.
He was shot and killed. No law enforcement officers or civilians were hurt.
Investigators determined McMillan was driving a vehicle reported stolen in Arizona. The shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, with assistance from the FBI and USBP.
The shooting involved Border Patrol agents and DPS troopers. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images)
In January, a man suspected of smuggling illegal immigrants was shot by federal officers during a gunfire exchange in Arizona.
Patrick Gary Schlegel, 34, fled from authorities on foot and allegedly shot at a CBP helicopter and at agents, Heith Janke, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, said at the time.
A U.S. Border Patrol officer watches a USBP helicopter. (Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images)
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Schlegal, a U.S. citizen from Arizona, underwent surgery and survived. No one else was harmed, authorities said.
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