The Latest: Teacher to return to Tennessee to face charges

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on the arrest of a Tennessee teacher charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old student (all times local):

2:55 p.m.

The man charged in the kidnapping of a Tennessee girl acknowledged in California federal court that he is the suspect and agreed to return to Tennessee to face charges there.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman ordered Tad Cummins held in the meantime as both a flight risk and a danger to the public.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hitt said Monday Cummins is a danger in part for “using his position of trust as a school teacher” and for having two guns in the vehicle when he and the missing girl were found Thursday at a remote cabin in far northwest California.

Assistant federal defender Ben Galloway argued the girl went willingly and Cummins had no criminal history.

Cummins offered minimal responses as he was advised of his rights and the charges that could send him to prison for 10 years to life.

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12:50 p.m.

Court documents say a Tennessee teacher charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old student and driving her to California had planned to take the girl to Mexico and took a boat from San Diego on a test run.

Authorities credit the caretaker of a remote northern California property for helping police find her Thursday and arrest her alleged abductor, fired teacher Tad Cummins. She has returned home.

Federal court documents filed Monday show the 50-year-old Cummins switched vehicle license plates twice, disabled his vehicle’s GPS system, used aliases, altered his appearance, paid only in cash and used back roads during his nearly six weeks on the run.

The Associated Press is not naming the girl or her family members because she is an alleged victim of a sex crime.

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