By Stacy Brown NNPA Senior National Correspondent Bill Cosby said his widely criticized admonition that young Black men should “pull their pants up” was less about fashion...

The systemic bias that has historically failed Black people in the USA is no less evident in Canada. That reality is laid bare in the...

Claude Cummings has been unanimously nominated by the NNPA Executive Committee to receive the NNPA 2025 National Leadership Award for outstanding leadership and achievement...

People in the News

Friday, September 12, 2025

People in the News

Friday, September 12, 2025

SMU student arrested for sexual assault of male classmate

John David Mahaffey, a prominent Southern Methodist University (SMU) student was arrested and released on bond earlier this week for two sexual assault incidents which occurred last Sunday.  Mahaffey, a 19-year-old sophomore finance major and Hunt Scholar, comes from a family with long historical ties to the university.

According to SMU’s school newspaper, The Daily Campus, Mahaffey’s grandmother, father and two aunts are former students of the school. Also, “His great-great grandfather was a member of the founding committee for SMU, and served as an interim professor when the university opened.”

Wednesday evening Kent Best, the executive director of SMU news and communications, released a statement regarding the arrest of an unnamed suspect:

On Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012, SMU Police arrested an SMU student for an alleged sexual assault that occurred Sept. 23, 2012, on the SMU campus. SMU Police will present the findings of its investigation to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. The student is temporarily banned from campus pending further investigation.

The victim reportedly told police that he was sexually assaulted by a male SMU student that he knew on Sunday, Sept. 23 around 3 a.m. at one location on campus and then again in the parking garage located at Airline Road and Daniel Avenue.

To read more visit SMU’s Daily Campus.