Tad Cummins To Stay Jailed Until Trial

NASHVILLE, TN — Alleged kidnapper and former Maury County teacher Tad Cummins will remain locked up until his trial, a federal judge ruled Friday. Cummins' attorney, a federal public defender, had asked that he be allowed to stay with his sister in Mount Pleasant while awaiting trial on charges he kidnapped a 15-year-old former student and took her on a 38-day cross-country escapade in an effort to avoid capture.

Though they conceded that prior to the alleged kidnapping, Cummins had been considered an upstanding member of his community, federal prosecutors said that the efforts which he undertook to avoid detection for nearly six weeks proves that he is a continuing flight risk.

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An FBI agent laid out the alleged steps Cummins took during his evasion. He and the teen ditched their cell phones in the Tennessee River near Decatur, Ala. before traveling to Oklahoma, Colorado and then into California, where they stayed in the largely ungoverned Slab City area before heading to northern California, the agent said.

He said Cummins admitted to buying a kayak with an eye towards paddling to Mexico, but got spooked because he thought a California law enforcement officer had figured out who he was. That was when he took the girl to Northern California, where he was eventually captured.

Cummins is charged with transporting a minor across state lines for illegal sexual activity, kidnapping and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Image via USDOJ