Police blotter
Appling man charged with stalking teenage singer
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An Appling man was taken Wednesday to Tybee Island, Ga., after being charged Tuesday with stalking Miley Cyrus.
After Mark McLeod, 53, was spotted recently in Tybee Island, where the Hannah Montana star is filming a movie, town authorities issued an arrest warrant .
Tybee Island police picked up McLeod, of Linder-McCurdy Road, from the Columbia County Detention Center on Wednesday afternoon and took him to the Chatham County j ail.He was arrested on a charge of criminal attempted stalking and is being held on $50,000 bond.
Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said he was told that McLeod, who had been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct in June while at the filming of Cyrus' movie, was seen Aug. 2 in the Tybee Island area.
The day after his arrest in June, McLeod was released from the Chatham County j ail because of overcrowding, according to authorities.
He showed up March 6 at a book-signing featuring the 16-year-old in Manhattan. He professed his love to the star, whom he said he would marry, in a video posted by the New York Daily News.
He has said that the singer communicated with him through secret messages in photos and her TV show.
Ex-teacher is set free
A former Columbia County teacher convicted of having sex with a student was released from jail two weeks ago .
Melissa Lee Chase, a one-time Harlem High School softball coach, was released from Augusta-Richmond County Law Enforcement Center on July 31, said her attorney, Victor Hawk.
Chase, then 28, was convicted of sexual assault in 2006 for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by five years on probation.
The state Supreme Court last month ruled that the trial judge in Richmond County Superior Court should have allowed Chase's attorneys to present the victim's consent in her defense.
Chase served 21 months at the Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville, Ga., before her recent transfer to the Augusta jail.
Man charged after wreck
An Evans man was released from the hospital and charged after a wreck Monday that injured an Appling woman.
After being released from Medical College of Georgia Hospital on Tuesday, Gregory Teasley, 40, of Faircloth Drive , was charged with failure to maintain lane, Columbia County sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said.
Mari Lee Stewart, 74, of Keg Creek Drive, was in critical condition at the hospital Thursday.
Teasley was driving east on Washington Road near M&M Road in Appling about 3:30 p.m. when the wreck occurred. Police say he crossed the center line and grazed the side of a truck pulling a camper driven by Brandon Goodwin, 28, of Grovetown.
Teasley's Suzuki Reno then struck Stewart's Jeep Cherokee head-on, police say.
Motorcycle stolen from lot
A Fort Gordon soldier called police Wednesday after his motorcycle was stolen from a hotel near Interstate 20.
According to a report from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, the 34-year-old said that between
6:30 a.m. and 5:50 p.m., someone stole his green 2004 Kawasaki Ninja ZX1 sport bike from the parking lot of Best Inn & Suites, 4073 Jimmie Dyess Parkway .