A former Sweetwater High School in-school suspension teacher has pleaded guilty in Monroe County Criminal Court to two counts of solicitation of a minor, receiving an 11-month, 29-day suspended sentence.
 

The Monroe County sentence for 31-year-old Cedric Holmes of Loudon will run concurrent with a three-year suspended sentence he received for pleading guilty to aggravated statutory rape charge stemming from the same case in Loudon County earlier this month.Holmes is to have no contact with the victims in the case. Holmes will be placed on the sexual offender registry and will receive counseling. Holmes was arrested last May.

 

The 6-foot-5 inch, 240-pound Holmes was a volunteer assistant basketball coach at SHS. Monroe County Director of Schools Mike Lowry said Holmes began working for the school system in August 2007 as a non-certified employee and had passed all the background checks school employees must go through. “There were no red flags,” Lowry said at the time of Holmes’ arrest. Sweetwater Police Detective John Scruggs on May 13, 2008 received information of inappropriate sexual contact between Holmes and underage female students, investigators said.

Scruggs, Chief Eddie Byrum and Detective Marty Kyle said they determined Holmes had sexual intercourse with a female SHS student but the sex had occurred in Loudon County, SPD said in a press release upon Holmes’ arrest last year.

Detective Patrick Upton of the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office was notified and immediately conducted his own investigation resulting in the charge of aggravated statutory rape in Loudon County.