ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) -- A judge in northeast Tennessee has sentenced a former Sunday school teacher to six months in jail for inappropriately touching a teenage girl in his class.
The jail term for 50 year-old Teddy Simerly will be followed by five years of probation.
The Kingsport Times-News reported Judge Robert Cupp in Elizabethton said he struggled to understand why Simerly -- who the judge called a good person -- touched the girl four times while he read Scripture and taught the Sunday school lesson to a class at Upper Gap Creek Free Will Baptist Church.
Witnesses had testified at a previous court hearing that Simerly had touched the girl's legs, back and breast.
Simerly's attorney, Stacy Street, said Simerly's wife has filed for divorce and his diabetes has become worse since his guilty plea on February.
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Information from: Kingsport Times-News, http://www.timesnews.net
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
