Convicted sex offender Benjamin Joseph Shook made his first appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Greeneville.
Shook, 41, was apprehended this morning in Smyth County, Va., with a 14-year-old East Tennessee girl he has allegedly been with since June 22.
Shook, clad in waist and hand shackles over a camouflage-style hunting shirt, answered a series of questions by presiding U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifton Corker, who appointed the Federal Defender Services of East Tennessee to represent him.
Shook, charged in a U.S. District Court criminal complaint with interstate travel by a convicted sex offender without registration, waived his detention hearing. Bond was not set by Corker.
Shook will appear in court next at a preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court on July 16.