Teacher Dated Mom to Have Sex with Teen Daughter: Cops

A former middle school teacher now. behind bars on shocking allegations from. both inside [music]. and outside the classroom. But this case. is years in the making with [music] a. consensual adult relationship on the. surface allegedly turning into a. shocking family affair that will make. your stomach turn. Welcome to Sidebar. presented by Law & Crime. I'm Jesse. Weber. >> [music]. >> So, the man you see here is 41-year-old. Daniel LaLieve facing a judge in a.

yellow jumpsuit this week learning he. will be held in jail without bond on. felony charges. Two years ago, the. father of two was a career and technical. teacher at Tuskawilla Middle School in. Seminole County, Florida just weeks shy. from being put on administrative leave. This is where he will never return to. the classroom again. Now, we have the arrest report on this. case that details the allegations. against him. And yes, he's innocent. until proven guilty, but we got to talk.

about this, okay? Cuz this arrest. report, and yes, it's the law. enforcement's perspective, it's their. report, it's their investigation, it. provides an in-depth look that I will. tell you even just listening to the. allegations will leave you speechless. And we're going to break everything down. step-by-step with an attorney from the. Sunshine State because this is a story. that is much darker than anyone could. have imagined. It's February 4th, 2026. A detective from the Oviedo Police. Department is about to conduct an. interview with a woman who was. romantically involved with LaLieve. The.

woman told police, or apparently told. police, they started dating in October. 2023. And over the course of the. relationship, the woman and her children. would spend the night at LaLieve's. residence, including the entire duration. of winter break, which was roughly 2. weeks between December and January. So. far everything seems normal, right? The. relationship's progressing, they're. spending the night together. appeared to. reach a place where her children spent a. significant amount of time with him as. well. Here's the missing detail, okay? The missing detail is that LaLieve was.

the teacher of at least one of her. children. And here is where the story. takes a chilling alleged turn. According. to the report, the woman accused LaLieve. of grooming her 13-year-old daughter. through multiple methods, including. spending alone time in his classroom. before, during, and after school, holding hands, hugging each other. So, I. have a lot to break down. I want to get. into this. Let me bring on civil. litigation attorney Chris Klotz to talk. about this. Uh, first of all, uh, thanks.

for taking the time. When you hear. allegations of grooming, talk about it a. lot, it feels sometimes like a nebulous. term. What exactly do you have to show. in a case to prove grooming per se? Well, you know, so there's always the. the thing that kind of comes to mind is. the the depth and the length of the. connection, you know, before the. interactions. Like, you know, a father. and a father and a daughter having, you. know, holding hands or something like. that maybe at 13 is maybe a little bit.

older, I suppose. But you really have to. look at the whole context of the. situation. Those type of things. happening. in a new relationship, [clears throat]. and my understanding is that this. relationship was three or four months. old, maybe maybe less than that for. between this man and this woman. Um, you. know, when you have contact like that. between an older child um, and somebody. somebody's child in a new relationship, it's kind of a red flag. And uh, I noted. that, you know, in reading the police. report and in reading some of the other,

you know, data sources, there's there. was, you know, allegations that they. were on the telephone late at night with. one each with one another and the mom. caught her doing that on on a couple of. instances. I'm just not sure, you know, when is it a when would it be. appropriate for. a mom's daughter to be having. conversation with her new boyfriend at, you know, late at night. I, you know, I'm not going to say that situation, you. know, might not ever occur. If there has. to be some time of exchange, you know, late at night, but on a regular basis, telephone calls late at night, holding.

hands with an older child like that, um, you know, moving classes around is what. I understand also happened in this case. It it just there's a it's a combination. of the things and kind of the background. context that really can make it grooming. or not. Because again again, there are instances of affection between. um, you know, parents and children that. that's not grooming conduct. But but. when you take it in a context of a new. relationship, those things can be red. flags. All right, before we go on, I got.

to give a quick shout-out to our partner. CyberGhost VPN. Why? Have you ever. hesitated to connect to public Wi-Fi. like in a restaurant, an airport, work, school because you're scared that. someone might steal your information? Totally valid. The truth is eyes are. watching you every time you go online, but there is a solution, CyberGhost VPN. You can select one of their hundreds of. locations before you browse and they'll. encrypt everything through their secure. servers. So, this way no one can track. your online activity. It works on up to. seven devices at once, so you can share. with family and friends. And with just a.

couple clicks, CyberGhost unlocks. exclusive geo-restricted content from. over 40 major streamers like Netflix and. Prime. And with over 38 million users. worldwide and a nearly perfect rating on. Trustpilot, CyberGhost is one of the. most recommended VPNs out there. And. look, if you're still not sure, there's. a 45-day money-back guarantee and an 84%. discount plus 4 months free with the. link in my description. So, that's just. $2.03 a month to protect your privacy. and enjoy unlimited content. Don't wait, click the link in the description and.

start browsing safely with CyberGhost. VPN. Let's go into that. Let's dive into. this cuz I want to go back to the police. report. The allegations continue to get. even worse. So, the woman told police, or allegedly told police, that [snorts]. LaLieve would rub her daughter's thighs, speak on the phone with her in the. middle of the night on several occasions. like you said, caught him holding her. daughter's hand while on a trip to. Disney Springs, and even allegedly made. a bank account in her daughter's name. and added money to it. Now, first of. all, before we go any further, Chris, a.

lot of these allegations in these cases, um, there might not be forensic proof, right? Forensic material if you're. talking about uh, physical [snorts]. contact. But if you're talking about a. bank account, and it's a questionable. bank account, there's records of that. Sure. Well, you know, again, not. everything everything in isolation, you. know, might be, you know, there might be. a in in a rational explanation. Like say. for instance, somebody's putting money. for a, you know, lunch account or. something like that. And there was some. kind of arrangement that they had for.

that. But when you get the combination. of these things all closely tied in time. proximity and inappropriateness, you. know, they all add up to be significant. red flags. Um, you know, there's. questions also there's some reports of, you know, throwaway email accounts or. throwaway, you know, websites where. there was an ability to hide the. communication. That's, you know, that is. a humongous red flag. Now, that by. itself, um, is telling. So, yeah, let's. So, I want to keep it in mind according.

to the report, this all happened, or. allegedly happened, during the course of. this relationship. So, now we fast. forward to January 2024. Want to get. into this a little more. So, you're. roughly 3 months later, and this. relationship between two adults. officially ends. But here's the part. What LaLieve allegedly reveals is next. level, so shocking. The report says, quote, "When the woman and LaLieve broke. up, he told her daughter that he only. dated her mom so that he could, quote,

get close to her.". Now, so far, by the way, before we even. go any further, Chris, I got to keep. throwing you into this cuz I have many. many questions. Is this going to be a lot based on the. testimony of this girl? Is she going to. have to take the stand and be that. connective tissue? Yeah, and so we actually, you know, we. had this kind of conversation maybe uh, a few weeks ago with another case where. there's no forensic evidence. Sometimes. there's not forensic evidence, right? Um, in many uh, inappropriate sexual.

relationships, there's going to be some. type of. um, some type of medical evidence or maybe. some type of tissue or some type of DNA. uh, or some type of maybe bruising or. something that's physical evidence. From what I've read in all the police. reports, and again, of course, we're. talking allegedly, right? Cuz we're. going from police reports. But from what. everything that I've seen, this is. another one of those cases where there's. no forensic evidence that's of a. physical nature, right? So, again, we're. going back to statements. And if that.

statement um, is brought in court, oh, I. think this is going to be very very. difficult case for a jury to not convict. somebody on, right? I mean, with all of. the other evidence that's going to come. in about the uh, throwaway or dummy uh, email accounts and the communications. and the instructing the little girl, you. know, to to uh, delete certain messages. between them. Um, that kind of stuff. weighs very very heavily on juries. And. this So, again, this is going to be a.

tough case to win a trial. So, as far as we have with these. allegations, a lot of it is coming from. the girl's mother. We're talking again. persistent physical and verbal contact, claims of financial assistance, and it's. starting to sound more and more like. grooming, which we talked about, or. allegations of grooming. But the. officers need to get the story from the. teen herself, right? So, the police. report reveals they did just that. That. same day, February 4th, 2026, a forensic. interview was [snorts] conducted with. this 13-year-old girl where she. allegedly recounts an even more.

terrifying experience with the former. teacher. She stated that one night. before Christmas Day in 2023 when she. was staying at LaLieve's residence, she. woke up in the middle of the night to go. to the bathroom. She did not lock the. door due to everyone being asleep. While. she was washing her hands, LaLieve came. into the bathroom. While in the. bathroom, LaLieve told her to take off. all her clothes. After LaLieve told her. to get naked, LaLieve got on top of her. on the bathroom floor. and then it's I. don't have to get into more description.

here. You can understand that we're. talking about sexual contact or alleged. sexual contact, but sexual intercourse. that it last about 10 minutes. The girl. stated that during her encounter with. Leav, she did not say anything. She only. complied with his requests. She said. Leav also did not say anything during. the sexual battery. Leav then stopped. and told her to put her clothes back on. and before leaving the bathroom, Leav. told her not to tell anyone what. happened. She stated she does not. remember what Leav was wearing, but does.

not believe he took his clothes off. Again, these is a a very serious set of. allegations. So, Chris, I go back to. you. I'm on a loss for words for this. I. do wonder, I mean, I go back to this. whenever I hear about the alleged sexual. abuse or grooming of children. and you have to wonder if the case is. really made upon their testimony. Don't. prosecutors want to avoid having to put. them on the stand at all costs and. having to go through this? Yeah, so if, you know, there are. mechanisms in the state of Florida to.

reduce the the anxiety load on young. people who have to testify. And if a. prosecutor can make a case without. having to put a child through that. process, that's always the most. preferred way. But in this case, because. there's not really any type of rape kit. or. DNA sample that was able to be collected. right after the incident, there will. there's a very high likelihood that this. young lady is going to have to testify.

at trial. And you know, there are ways that courts. can make that less impactful on the. child as far as having them be. retraumatized. It can be done sometimes. through a video link up. It can be done. sometimes in a way where the courtroom. has been cleared to to make it less. pressure. There are ways to do that, but this is. probably one of those cases where tries. they might, the prosecutors will. probably end up having to put her on the. stand. I want to go to the other alleged.

evidence in this case including physical. evidence. So, I go back to the police. report. Leav apparently had the log in to the. girl's school accounts and allegedly. made scheduling changes to have her. added to another one of his classes. without the knowledge or consent of her. mother. It goes on to say that Leav made. two different websites to secretly. communicate with the girl and even. taught her Morse code so they could. communicate to each other on detective. Leav also created what he called. throwaway email addresses to secretly.

communicate with her. In multiple. different conversations, Leav instructed. her to delete records of the. conversations and clear history and. delete trash files further attempting to. hide his communication with her. The. police report claims that Leav was under. investigation twice with the Seminole. County Public Schools School Board over. the course of his tenure between August. 4th, 2022 and May 3rd, 2024 stemming. from the allegations that we mentioned. so far and according to those probes, the allegations were quote supported by. sufficient preponderance of the.

evidence. And as a result, Leav was. placed on administrative leave on April. 26, 2024 and the district said he. resigned in lieu of termination and is. not eligible for rehire. But you fast. forward to Monday, March 30th, so now. two years later, police are at his front. door arresting him on felony charges of. sex assault by a custodian including. sexual battery of a victim 12 to 18. years old and a sex offense involving an. authority figure soliciting and engaging. in a romantic and sexual relationship.

with a student. Chris, a lot of people. look at this and say, why the delay? Yeah, so again, that's I. and I've seen this time after time where. teachers have been grooming children. students and somehow the teachers seem. to have access to change the child's. schedule. I don't understand why there's. not some more control or more attention. giving to teachers being able to change. children's schedules to place them in. their path. This is not the first case where I've.

seen that happen where where a teacher. has manipulated a child's schedule to. put them in their class or take them out. of another class and have them be. somewhere where they're they're more. available. >> [clears throat]. >> That is something that school system. should be on top of. And also, the fact that this gentleman had been. already found. I'm trying to figure out what the word. right word is. The fact that this. gentleman had already been found in two. prior instances to have acted. inappropriately, how do you get that. information out to the public? So, maybe.

that would have made a difference to. this mother to know that. You know, in. in going into a relationship with a new. person. You know, how could a mom have. had had access to that type of. information to say, hey, I see this. guy's got a history of being. inappropriate with students. I've got. students that are in his school. Is this. a a relationship that I want to engage. in? How do you how do you get that. information out to the public? Because. maybe that would have made a difference. to her before she placed her children, you know, in the path of this person. that obviously she trusted.

And maybe talked a really good game with. her or maybe somehow, you know, gained. her confidence enough to bring her and. her children into his house over. Christmas. So, that information's out. there. I mean, why can we not get that. type of information out for for people. to have in their hands? But I guess it. also matters if you're talking about why. the charges were brought now. Takes a. minute to build up an investigation like. this, right? I mean, it takes a minute. to build up all of this evidence and. having interviews and, you know, I talk. about the bank records and also under.

the school data. So, I guess it does. take a minute to build up all this to. build a case like this because the the. charges that he's facing are quite. serious, right? I mean, do you even know. what the punishment could be for these. kinds of charges? Yeah, I mean, and. these are first-degree felonies. So, I. mean, they're they're the most serious. cases that there are. And and you have. got a really good point about the. timing. So, if you're going to try to. get a subpoena to get email records or. records of emails being created and. destroyed, that can take weeks and. weeks. If you're trying to get the bank. records that they subpoenaed obviously.

to try to find whether or not there had. been some type of bank account that was. created doing a subpoena by the police. department to get those documents, that. can take weeks and weeks to do. And then. if they're doing interviews of people, maybe they've gone back and interviewed. the people from the two earlier. allegations to see exactly what happened. in those cases for the criminal case. Yeah, it's not a surprise that that. there's, you know, sometimes months and. months that go by in order to bring a. case cuz they want to bring a strong. case, right? This is not a this is not a. case where they have.

a semen DNA sample that came, you know, on the on the eve of the of the sexual. battery, you know, with a medical. examination where they've got. DNA evidence that is happening, you. know, almost in real time. This is is. this is a circumstantial case with with. statements. And so, they're having to put it. together and I'm sure law enforcement. wants to make sure that they do a good. job and have a have a tight case. Now, a lot of people who are watching. this might be saying, wait a second. Did the defendant did Leav say anything?

Did he say anything to maybe explain. himself, explain away the situation? Well, here is what we have learned from. the police report. Post-Miranda, I asked. Leav if he knew why he was here and he. said he did not. I advised Leav that I. wanted to speak with him about an. incident involving the teen girl. Leav. then questioned about what. I advised an. allegation of sexual battery. Leav. nodded his head in a yes motion. I then. asked Leav if he wanted to talk about it. and Leav stated that's probably not a.

good idea without a lawyer. So, the. answer is he didn't say much of. anything. Sometimes silence can speak. more than words because Chris, the. question becomes how do and it's so. difficult, right? Everybody reacts to. allegations differently. Now, could interpret this in saying, okay, he's innocent. I mean, look, he is. innocent until proven guilty, of course. But some could say he had nothing to do. with this. He's like, okay, I got to. protect my rights here. I have to ask. for a lawyer. Other people will say, based on that account, and this is by.

the way, law enforcement's account, did. he not seem shocked? Did he not say, what on earth is this about? Oh my gosh, I'm completely innocent. Let me explain. everything. Two different reactions. there. Your thoughts. So, and I in my career I've done, you. know, I've done a lot of criminal. representation in my career. I have seen. people react in all different ways. And. some people have that righteous. indignation. where they're like, I didn't do that. And. and sometimes that's real and sometimes. that's not real. Or sometimes people.

have a very flat affect, which appears kind of what happened in. this particular case. And they may be. innocent or guilty. So, I don't really. take the response. of somebody when they're confronted by. the police necessarily to be the end all. be all of whether they're have a guilty. conscience or not because everybody. reacts differently. Some people freeze. up. You know, being in a police environment. for a lot of people is. scary and new and unfamiliar. And so,

somebody gets really quiet. You know, it doesn't I don't necessarily. take that to mean anything. You know, honestly as a. somebody who's done criminal defense. before, having a client who says I would. rather not make a statement until Yeah. my lawyer is here is exactly what is. exactly what you're supposed to do if. you're being confronted with with a very. serious case. So, and that that. particular statement may or may not even. be admissible when you're asserting your. Fifth Amendment right. That that may not. even come in front of a jury. Yeah, no,

it's a good point and and yeah, I don't. know if this would be a particularly. helpful or relevant for the. prosecution's case. The bigger question. is where does this former teacher go. from here, right? So, so the same day of. his arrest, Leav made his first court. appearance. This is where a judge. decided to hold him in the Seminole. County Jail without bond. He's due for. his arraignment on May May. but according to his court docket, there. was a waiver of arraignment and a plea. of not guilty has been submitted into. the record. So, we're going to have to. wait and see what happens there. But, Chris, uh what no bond? Is that.

surprising? No, that that's not really surprising. because it it appears I think I remember. something in the police report about. there having had been some type of. injunction some type of stay away. injunction. >> yeah, actually no, you're right. So, according to the police report, there. was already an an active injunction out. of Seminole County against believe for. the woman and her family. It's active. until May 7th of this year. So, how does. that play into it? Yeah, so. if there had been any type of violation.

of that injunction and maybe trying to. contact the child to tell her to destroy. records or destroy old emails or get rid. of that stuff. If there had been any. contact of that nature and I just don't. I don't know that. So, I'm speculating. right now, right? But, if there had been. any contact in violation of that. injunction, um that would be something that a judge. could consider and whether or not to. grant a bond in the criminal case or. not. It's not uncommon on a very very. serious case like this especially when. there's been a relationship between an. adult and a child that's inappropriate.

for a judge to really think long and. hard about what conditions are going to. be the safest for the child if I let if. I give this opportunity for the for the. accused person to get out. And so, usually what's going to happen the the. fact that he did a a not guilty and a. waiver of arraignment, that's pretty. standard operating procedure in Florida. Um the fact that he doesn't have a bond. is a little bit unusual because in in. most instances, you're entitled to have. some type of bond even if it's very very. high bond. But, in this case, I'm sure. the judge just wants to make sure that.

if he sets a bond, he or she the judge. sets a bond that is obtainable, that. there are precautions put in place to. protect the child and also to protect. the case because it's already been shown. according to the police report um that. this that this man is willing to. destroy evidence or manipulate the case. Um and so, they want to make sure that. the child is safe, number one, that the. mother is safe, um and that the case is. not somehow manipulated if he's able to.

get out. So, look, as we wait to see how this. unfolds, I have to ask you one more. question uh from a litigation point of. view. You're we're we're all wondering. how others in the community are maybe. reacting to this situation because these. are very disturbing allegations. So, the. Seminole County Public Schools has. responded to this with the following. statement. The safety of our students. and staff is our highest priority and. any type of behavior that undermines. that safety will not be tolerated at. Seminole County Public Schools. I I. didn't uh check to see if there was any.

form of litigation at this point. You. maybe you did, I didn't see it. But, are. they worried right now? Are they. concerned? Seminole County Public. Schools? That district? >> When you when you have a teacher that. has got two prior um. notes of inappropriate behavior with. students and then you have a third that. ends up being something with this. gravity, of course, they're going to be in a. posture where they're wondering whether. or not there's going to be some type of. litigation about this. The fact that a. lot of this grooming conduct appears to.

have happened on school grounds, uh if I. was the school system, I would be very. concerned about that. And you know what? I'd be taking some steps to make sure. that this kind of stuff doesn't happen. Don't give teachers access to move. children around within the school. Um you know, so they land in their path, you know? Have a double check or check. and balance on that if a schedule is. changed for a child. Um if a student is. having uh you know, if a student's. parent is having a relationship with the.

teacher, and those those kind of things, I know they're personal and private, but. you know, collectively with all the things that. were happening at the school, certainly. there is at least a a a plausible. argument that the school should have had. some type of notice that there was. something wrong going on with this. teacher historically. And then, if the. teacher is putting his hands on his. thigh or on the on the young lady's. thigh and holding her hands and. manipulating her school schedule in the. school, that's.

tons of red flags there for the school. system. It's a good point. Uh Chris, thank you so much for taking the time. I. really really appreciate it. Always. happy to be here. Thanks. And that's all. we have for you right now here on. Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much. for joining us. As always, please. subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's. Peacock as well. If you want to follow. me, X, Instagram, my NewsNation show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday [music] through. Friday, 11:00 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you. next time, everybody.

Stay private, stay secure, unlock global. content. Get CyberGhost VPN now with 84%. off plus 4 months free, risk-free with a. 45-day money-back guarantee. Click the. link in the description and start. protecting your digital life today.