No Indictment for Tennessee Teacher - Updated

(Chattanooga, Tennessee) Prosecutors asked a Hamilton County grand jury to indict teacher Stacy Swallows, 46, on nine counts of aggravated assault and nine counts of false imprisonment.

The grand jury chose not to indict which suggests that the prosecution was overreaching.

Judge Bob Moon said at the time that the group of teens ghost hunting in the cemetery weren’t doing anything illegal or trespassing. Moon said Swallows simply overreacted.

Reportedly, the cemetery had been vandalized many times in the past and Swallows acted to protect it.

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Tennessee Teacher Arrested
[Previous 9/5/10 post]
(Chattanooga, Tennessee) A 45-year-old teacher at Sequoyah High School, Stacy Swallows, was arrested Sunday after an alleged Saturday night incident where he held several teenagers at gunpoint.

Swallows has been charged with nine counts each of aggravated assault and false imprisonment.

Janice Atkinson, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, said the teens, ages 16 to 19, had gone to Shipley Cemetery on Saturday night to follow up on a ghost story that they read about on an Internet website. As they were leaving, they told investigators, Shipley parked his car in the road to block their way and pulled a rifle, ordering them to stay where they were until police arrived.

Hamilton County Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman, whose district includes Sequoyah High, said she believes that Swallows may have thought the children were vandalizing property.

“I think maybe he thought these kids were breaking into his neighbor’s house or vandalizing or something like that,” she said. “So I think there’s a lot more to the story than just taking them hostage.”

On the surface, it appears that Mr. Swallows merely overreacted to a suspicious circumstance rather than assault and imprisonment. In any event, Swallows was locked up in the Hamilton County Jail with bond set at $180,000.