Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says a former Waco attorney in a child sex abuse case 'served 60 days', but jail records show he was released after 29 days, following an initial one-day plea offer from Paxton's prosecutors.
Paxton, the Republican nominee for the US Senate, made the remark at a United States Hispanic Business Council forum in Dallas on Monday, 28 September 2026. He was responding to criticism of a plea deal his office reached with Adam Hoffman, who had been charged with a felony carrying up to life in prison.
Hoffman ultimately pleaded guilty to two misdemeanours after the felony trial ended without a verdict.
Sentence Versus Time Served
Paxton called a Democratic advertisement misleading and said his office could have subpoenaed the child witness. He then said critics who claimed he freed a predator after one day overlooked the fact that the defendant received a longer sentence.
Judge Roy Sparkman sentenced Hoffman to 60 days in McLennan County Jail. Hoffman was released at about 08:00 on 25 May 2026 after 29 days, with the jail typically awarding two days' credit for each day of good behaviour and making no exception for him.
Paxton may have meant the sentence rather than time in custody, but as phrased, the remark describes the sentence, not the time served.
Ken Paxton: The criticism has been that I let a child predator out after one day. Well guess what? They served 60 days. pic.twitter.com/KVZZpCrI4c
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) September 28, 2026
How One Day Became Sixty
Hoffman was arrested in 2022 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. The attorney general's office took the prosecution after McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens recused himself, and The Texas Tribune reported that a 2025 trial ended in a 7-5 hung jury.
Hoffman has not been convicted of that felony. Prosecutors then proposed a plea agreement under which Hoffman would plead guilty to two misdemeanours: indecent assault and displaying harmful material to a minor.
The proposed sentence was time served, which would have meant no additional jail time beyond the one day Hoffman spent in custody after his arrest. PolitiFact, reviewing court filings, reported that he signed a judicial confession to indecent assault.
At a hearing on 16 April 2026, Sparkman rejected the one-day term. 'One day. Seriously?' the judge said, according to a transcript. Assistant Attorney General Brenda Cantu then proposed 30 days in jail, surrender of Hoffman's law licence and a lifetime protective order.
At sentencing on 27 April, the victim's mother told the court that 30 days was not enough. Sparkman raised the term to 60 days and ordered Hoffman to surrender his licence for five years.
The 60-day sentence therefore came from the judge, rather than from the state's initial proposal.
The Prosecutors' Defence and Its Critics
In a 15 May letter to Republican State Representative Jeff Leach, prosecutors Cantu and Dorian Cotlar wrote that they had 'no pathway to prove the elements necessary to secure a felony conviction' without the child's testimony. They said the child did not want to testify again.
Hoffman's defence lawyer, Gerry Morris, told the Tribune that nothing extraordinary occurred. Angela Weltin, a Harris County prosecutor not involved in the case, told the newspaper that prosecutors sometimes drop cases they believe are true rather than retraumatise a child.
Others disagreed. Tetens told the Tribune he could not recall a comparable reduction from so serious a charge. Sparkman raised concerns about a pattern in cases the office took over, citing a separate murder-for-hire case that ended with a four-day sentence, according to the Tribune.
Cantu replied that she and Cotlar had no involvement in that case and that nobody dictates how they handle their cases.
Registry Question and Political Fallout
The misdemeanour convictions did not require Hoffman to register as a sex offender in Texas; the plea documents did not specify the victim's age. KWTX reported that authorities in Nebraska, where he has since moved, require registration for 15 years.
Democratic nominee James Talarico has made the case central to his campaign. PolitiFact rated one of his claims Mostly True, saying it was accurate but needed additional information.
Talarico cited the victim's mother's claim that the case was 'treated differently' because Hoffman's lawyer also represented Nate Paul, a friend and donor of Paxton. No evidence establishing that motive was identified in the reporting reviewed.
The sentence was 60 days, Hoffman was released after 29 days, and the state's initial plea offer called for one day in jail.
