Tenn. teacher who fled with student gets 20 years
NASHVILLE, TENN. >> A Tennessee teacher who was on the run for weeks with a 15-year-old student was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison.
A statement from the victim called 52-year-old Tad Cummins “disgusting” and said the effects of his actions on her were “devastating and permanent.”
Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence after Cummins pleaded guilty to transporting a minor across state lines for sex and obstructing justice.
The victim was in the federal courtroom in Nashville, but when the time came for her to speak, she did not come forward. After a discussion with the prosecutor and the judge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Beth Meyers read the girl’s statement.
“What you did to me was unspeakable,” Meyers read. The victim’s statement said Cummins saw “a broken girl who was lonely, scared and traumatized.” She needed protection, the statement said, but Cummins only wanted sex. The statement also said the girl was convinced Cummins would have eventually discarded her had he not been captured near a remote California cabin in April 2017 after a national manhunt.
In arguing for a stiff sentence, Meyers focused on the preparation that Cummins put into his flight with the girl, including taking his wife’s car, which he thought would be less conspicuous than his own; filling a prescription for an erectile dysfunction drug; and taking out a loan so that he could pay for everything in cash.