The former substitute teacher for Crittenden County Schools, who was charged in January with felony second-degree terroristic threatening, will be in court here Wednesday morning.
Jaken Orten, 22, of Dawson Springs will have a preliminary hearing in front of Crittenden District Judge Daniel Heady. It is scheduled for 10:05am.
Preliminary hearings are evidentiary hearings where the prosecution lays out some of the evidence it has while seeking probable cause to send the case to a grand jury. The burden of proof is very low for a preliminary hearing and the judge will decide what will happen next for the defendant. A grand jury decides whether enough evidence exists to continue prosecution of a case as a felony.
Orten is facing a Class D felony charge. If found guilty, he could face 1-5 years in prison.
Orten was released from custody on Jan. 18 after posting $10,000 property bond. He was arrested that same day for allegedly telling two female students at the elementary school to “sit down, or I will kill you” while brandishing a knife he’d allegedly found in the desk of the science teacher for who he was substituting on Jan. 11. The children told their regular teacher a few days later what had happened and the teacher reported the matter to administrators.
School District officials have said little about the incident since Orten’s arrest, other than to acknowledge that they take school safety very seriously. Superintendent Vince Clark said shortly after the incident that Orten was fired and he is not be permitted to be on or near any school campus, or at any school-related functions.
