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. 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. 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. Federal 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. "Here the evidence
of danger is substantial," Holmes said.
She said Cummins had abused his
position of authority as a teacher and she noted all the ways he tried to evade
police. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
Cummins, 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. Culleoka is
a community about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Nashville near the Alabama
line. 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.
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.
The girl, he said, thought of Cummins as a mentor she could turn to.
A 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 agent said there was no evidence. Cummins 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. He
also faces state charges of aggravated kidnapping and sexual contact with a
minor.
Cummins was arrested
and the girl was found safe in a remote area of Northern California last month
after police received a tip. No trial date has been set for the teacher yet.
(AP)