![]() He also faces state charges of aggravated kidnapping and sexual contact with a minor.Ĭummins was arrested and the girl was found safe in a remote area of Northern California last month after police received a tip. The agent said there was no evidence.Ĭummins is facing a federal charge of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor and faces a minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison if he is convicted. The girl, he said, thought of Cummins as a mentor she could turn to.Ī lawyer for Cummins repeatedly asked the FBI agent if there was any evidence that the girl was held against her will at any time on the trip from Columbia, Tennessee, to California. The female student had been a victim of bullying at school, as well as physical and verbal abuse at home and she was afraid for her safety at both home and school, Noble testified. He would tell students that he had been in the FBI, the CIA and the military and "had the ability to get lost," Noble said. Culleoka is a community about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Nashville near the Alabama line. Cummins decided to use the name Castro because it was a Hispanic name and he thought they would be better off portraying themselves as having that heritage if they were going south of the border.Ĭummins, a respiratory therapist by training, was a mentor to students at the Culleoka Unit School and kids would often go to him with their problems, the FBI agent said. They tried to kayak from San Diego to Mexico, but the waters were too treacherous, Noble said, decided it was too risky going into Mexico on foot. Testimony at the detention and preliminary hearing showed that Cummins spent $1,500 on a two-seat kayak, and he and the student used it to try to get to Mexico. In the days before he left with the girl, Noble said, Cummins had actually looked up teen marriage and age of consent on the internet. They decided to call themselves John and Joanne Castro and tell people that they were married, and he was 40 and she 24, the FBI agent testified. That included, testimony showed, disabling his GPS on his vehicle, switching out license plates, and Cummins and the girl throwing their cellphones in the Tennessee River near Decatur, Alabama, so they wouldn't be tracked. She said Cummins had abused his position of authority as a teacher and she noted all the ways he tried to evade police. ![]() "Here the evidence of danger is substantial," Holmes said. The 50-year-old married teacher, who is a father and grandfather, said the sexual relationship with the girl began the first night after they disappeared March 13, FBI Agent Utley Noble said during testimony at a detention hearing in a federal court in Nashville.įederal prosecutors had argued that Cummins was a flight risk and a danger because he took advantage of a vulnerable girl and traveled with her across the country to have sex. That decision came after an FBI agent testified that the teacher Tad Cummins told authorities he had sex with the girl most nights during the 38 days he was on the run with her. ![]() (AP) - A federal judge on Friday ordered a Tennessee schoolteacher accused of kidnapping a 15-year-old student held until trial, saying he is a flight risk and a danger to the community. (Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office via AP) Authorities credit the caretaker of a remote northern California property for helping police find her and arrest her alleged abductor, fired teacher Tad Cummins. The girl is being evaluated and treated by mental health experts specializing in trauma, lawyer Jason Whatley said in a press release. A 15-year-old Tennessee student who was allegedly kidnapped by her teacher and taken to California is back home, a lawyer for the girl's family said Friday, April 21, 2017. ![]() In this Apphoto released by the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office is Tad Cummins.
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