TENNESSEE
Times Free Press
by Beth Burger
The head of Hamilton County schools’ Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program faces charges of aggravated sexual battery after he was accused of groping a 5-year-old girl in a restaurant Sunday.
Thomas C. McConnell, 65, of Hixson, a retired Army colonel, runs the school district’s junior ROTC program, which has about 25 instructors at about 10 local high schools.
Hamilton County school district officials said McConnell has been placed on suspension pending the outcome of the case.
McConnell also is a deacon at St. Jude Catholic Church in Chattanooga. Since his arrest, the Diocese of Knoxville issued a statement that McConnell will be suspended from the ministry pending the outcome of the investigation.
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