MILTON - A preliminary hearing for the man accused of threatening his ex-girlfriend and students and faculty at Priestley Elementary School was continued Wednesday morning.
Jeremy Michael Church, 37, with a mailing address of 249 W. Market St., Middleburg, but who said he also had lived out of his car, was scheduled to appear before Senior Magisterial District Judge Richard Cashman of Milton at 9 a.m. He faces felony counts of terroristic threats to commit violence and terroristic threats to cause public inconvenience and a misdemeanor count of terrorist threats to commit violence.
At a preliminary hearing, a judge hears testimony and decides whether enough evidence is presented to send the case to county court.
No date was scheduled for his next court appearance, and it wasn't immediately clear why the hearing was continued.
Church remains incarnated at Northumberland County Prison Wednesday in lieu of $125,000 bail.
Police said Church caused the lockdown of all five buildings in the Shikellamy School District Thursday, Dec. 20, when he reportedly got into an argument over the telephone with Valerie Eisenhuth, the mother of his child. He threatened her life and said he was going to retrieve their daughter from Priestley Elementary just outside Northumberland in Point Township and "do worse than what happened in Connecticut," according to police. He was referencing the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 young students and six staff were killed six days earlier on Dec. 14.
Church turned himself in to law enforcement roughly one hour after the incident was reported to 911 at 11:20 a.m., and said his comments were taken out of context.
All exterior and classroom doors in the school district were locked after the threat was reported to police. No students, faculty or staff were harmed, and there appeared to be no immediate threat.