Alissa McCommon allegedly told the boy she is accused of raping when he was 12 that she was pregnant in September. In March, she appeared to be cradling a baby bump in court. Last week she arrived in court with no baby bump.
A Tennessee teacher charged with raping a 12-year-old student may have given birth to the boy's child while in jail.
Alissa McCommon, 39, appeared in Tipton County County General Sessions Court on July 2 for a pretrial hearing in her case.
The fourth-grade teacher will stand trial early next year on charges ranging from rape of a child and aggravated statutory rape to aggravated stalking and harassment after a grand jury voted to indict the educator on 23 charges related to her alleged abuse of five boys aged 12 to 17. McCommon has entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.
The Covington Police Department (CPD) first arrested McCommon in September following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct with a 12-year-old student. Photos from that arrest show her stunned husband looking on as his wife is taken to jail
McCommon proceeded to post bail, but one month later found herself back behind bars for allegedly violating the conditions of her pre-trial release.
It was at McCommon's bond revocation hearing that Detective Tony Doss of the Covington Police Department played audio of McCommon telling her alleged victim that she was pregnant and planning to "raise this baby and love this baby, and I’ll do it by myself."
In another text, Doss said that McCommon allegedly wrote: "This was a mistake, this is my burden." McCommon went on to ask the victim to "delete this number" and "please don't get me in trouble," said Doss.
The CPD, Tipton County Sheriff's Office, and McCommon's attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Inside Edition Digital seeking to confirm the pregnancy at that time.
Five months later, McCommon arrived in court cradling what appeared to be a baby bump in video posted by WREG as she was indicted on those grand jury charges.
Once again, the CPD, Tipton County Sheriff's Office, and McCommon's attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Inside Edition Digital seeking to confirm the pregnancy at that time.
That bump was nowhere to be found however on July 2, when McCommon arrived in court for a pretrial hearing. That hearing took place nine months after McCommon first mentioned the pregnancy to her alleged victim.
Inside Edition Digital reached out to the CPD, Tipton County Sheriff's Office, and McCommon's attorneys to ask if the accused rapist had given birth while incarcerated, but all three refused to comment.
It is unclear what might have happened if McCommon did give birth because there is no national standard of care for women who are incarcerated and pregnant. Most states chose to leave the decision of how pregnant inmates will be treated to the individual jails and correctional facilities, whose policies more often than not only allow the inmate one day with their child while they are incarcerated, according to a 2013 study in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics.
There is also no law requiring states to report the number of pregnant inmates or the outcomes of their pregnancies, despite the fact that as much as 10 percent of the female prison population enters the system pregnant and some 2000 babies are born behind bars each year, according to the AMA study.
The alleged father, who is now 15, took the stand just a few weeks after McCommon told him about the pregnancy in a closed-door hearing that ended with the judge ruling that the case would proceed to trial.
The investigation into McCommon began when law enforcement learned that she had been "suspended without pay from her position by Tipton County Schools due to the allegations," according to the CPD.
In March, the CPD announced that it had identified 21 potential victims following a seven-month investigation. The details of that investigation were then presented to the grand jury that voted to indict McCommon on charges of:
- Rape of a Child
- Aggravated Statutory Rape (five counts)
- Sexual Exploitation by Electronic Means (four counts)
- Solicitation of a Minor to Commit Aggravated Statutory Rape (four counts)
- Statutory Rape by An Authority Figure (two counts)
- Coercion of a Witness (two counts)
- Aggravated Stalking (two counts)
- Violation of the Child Protective Act
- Tampering with Evidence
- Harassment
McCommon could be facing a life sentence if convicted on all counts.
