Mark Allen Hernandez
A former Brown Middle School teacher was taken into custody on Thursday after he was sentenced in connection with child sex charges.
Judge Barry Steelman sentenced Mark Allen Hernandez to six years in state prison for sexual battery by an authority figure. He was ordered to serve the first six months, then the remainder will be on probation.
Hernandez also got two four-year sentences for solicitation of a minor.
A girl testified that she entered into a relationship with Hernandez her last year at Brown Middle School when she was 13. He gave her a phone with his contact information already in the phone under the contact name mydude.
She said Hernandez texted her often about sexual matters and asked her to send him photos.
After going on to another school, the girl said she would sometimes go to Brown Middle and meet with Hernandez after school had dismissed. She said on one occasion she met him in his classroom and he kissed her on the mouth and grabbed her butt.
She said her mother took the phone from her while they were on vacation. She said a police officer interviewed her the next day.
An investigator examined the phone and said there were multiple texts from Hernandez of an explicit sexual nature. In one message he requested that she sneak out of her house so they could have sex.
Hernandez was a history and social studies teacher, and he also served as an assistant football coach.
Hernandez has since moved to Kansas.
He was 52 and living in Hixson at the time of his arrest in 2019.