East Ridge ElementaryEast Ridge police have closed the investigation into a Hamilton County Department of Education employee who was accused of inappropriately touching a student.
The investigation was closed because the man who was its focus died last week, officials said. The Times Free Press will not release his name because he had not been charged with a crime.
"The criminal investigation [after his suspension from the school] has been concluded due to his death," said Capt. Tim Mullinax with the East Ridge Police Department.
The man was suspended from East Ridge Elementary School without pay in March.
At the time of his suspension, Stacy Stewart, assistant superintendent for human resources at the Hamilton County Department of Education, said the man was a non-licensed educational assistant at the school. She said the school system was following protocol for this type of investigation by suspending him, and that his suspension did not imply guilt.
A Child Protective Services investigation into the case is ongoing, Mullinax said.