Ex-teacher who faces sex charges is arrested again

Jeannie Michelle Hodges, 40, of 12237 Dunn Road in Autryville, was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and allowing an unlicensed minor to drive.

Clinton police were conducting a driver's license checkpoint on Main Street early last Saturday when they stopped Hodges' Ford Explorer. A 15-year-old boy was in the driver's seat, and Hodges was in the passenger's seat, Officer Tina Jackson said.

Jackson said the boy became nervous when she asked if his parents knew he was with Hodges. She said she then asked Hodges why she wasn't driving instead of an unlicensed teen, and Hodges said she didn't know.

"She had no worry in the world. She acted like she (couldn't) care less," Jackson said. "The juvenile did say they had been to church, they were at a church function."

Hodges consented to a search of the vehicle and her purse, and officers found the back seats folded down and clothing pushed to the cargo area, Jackson said. Officers also found Hodges' driver's license – she had said she didn't have her license with her – and a business card for a bail bonding company, Jackson said.

In July, Hodges posted a $20,000 bond to get out of the Sampson County Detention Center after she was charged with statutory rape, sexual offense with a student and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The previous charges stemmed from an alleged two-month affair she had with the 15-year-old last spring. Authorities said the boy spent several nights at her house.

The boy was a student at Hobbton Middle School in Newton Grove, where Hodges was an eighth-grade language arts teacher. She left her job before the end of the school year.

Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said he was stunned by the latest arrest and said he thinks Hodges is taking the charges against her lightly.

"My initial reaction was, you know, how stupid can you be to be out there, continuing to be out there, with a 15-year-old?" Thornton said. "The message that I get (is) that she didn’t view and perceive the charges that she has pending against her to be very serious.”

Hodges was released on a $2,000 bond, but she could soon wind up back in jail. Prosecutors said a condition of her bond in July was that she stay away from the boy, and they plan to ask a judge to revoke her bond on the initial charges.

The boy's parents were notified of the weekend incident, and he was placed into the custody of his older sister, police said.