Zachary Damian KeyThe teenager charged with filing a false report in Sequatchie County, Tenn., last week after allegedly threatening to “shoot up a school” now has been charged with statutory rape.
Zachary Damian Key, 19, a former Sequatchie County student, was charged Saturday with statutory rape after information was obtained during police interviews in the joint investigation by the Dunlap Police Department and Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Department into the school threat, according to a statement posted on the police department’s Facebook page.
Dunlap police Chief Clint Huth said Tuesday that detectives from both departments were talking with Key about the threat incident on Friday and began pursuing “a line of questioning regarding Key’s involvement in a statutory rape investigation” and also “interviewed the alleged rape victim,” en route to the charge.
Huth said the alleged victim is more than four years younger than Key.
After the threat investigation was concluded and authorities deemed it a “hoax,” the chief said Key was charged in the statutory rape probe.