Tennessee Lawmaker Arrested After Allegedly Stalking Neighbor

Republican Sen. Jim Summerville of Dickson gestures during a Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, hearing in Nashville, Tenn., about allegations officials at Tennessee State University changed more than 100 students' grades withou... Republican Sen. Jim Summerville of Dickson gestures during a Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, hearing in Nashville, Tenn., about allegations officials at Tennessee State University changed more than 100 students' grades without instructors' permission. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig) MORE LESS
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An outgoing Tennessee lawmaker is facing stalking and assault charges just one month after he was arrested for public intoxication.

State Sen. Jim Summerville (R) was arrested Saturday after neighbors reported him for stalking and threatening assault, according to the Tennessean. “Over the past few weeks, we’ve been receiving several complaints from his neighbors about the harassing and stalking,” Dickson police Lt. Todd Christian told the newspaper.

Summerville’s neighbor Cecilia Donaven, who’d previously filed intimidation reports on the legislator, said she went to police again Saturday morning because Summerville was holding a sign toward her house reading “Just keep it up, you’ve been warned.”

“He picks up that ‘Just keep it up, you’ve been warned’ sign and shakes it at me with one hand and a can of mace with the other hand,” Donaven told local TV station WSMV.

“Every minute I’m in this house, he’s watching me,” she added. “Every minute, he wants to see what I’m doing. He’s come over onto the property and thrown toilet paper on my front porch this week.”

Summerville, who was released on $10,000 bail, denied the allegations.

“The City of Dickson Police Department is engaging a systematic campaign of harassment. (Stalking! At my age?)” he said in a statement to WSMV. “Once these charges are resolved in court, I shall be suing the City of Dickson. Settlement negotiations will start at one million dollars.”

Summerville is no stranger to law enforcement, as previous incident reports from neighbors complained that the legislator shined a flashlight into a neighbor’s home after the neighbor stopped him from bringing another resident’s dog to animal control. He was also arrested in September for public intoxication after witnesses reported an intoxicated man walking down the street with a lawn chair, according to the Tennessean.

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