A Tennessee father arrested in Georgia and charged with kidnapping his two daughters has a lengthy arrest record dating back to 1996, including a previous kidnapping charge.
Richard Shuey, 36, of Crossville, Tenn., was taken to the Cumberland County Jail on Tuesday afternoon by Crossville police and booked on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, especially aggravated robbery and reckless endangerment of a child, police said.
“We got quite a few things on Mr. Shuey,” said Gary Howard, a spokesman for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
Excluding Tuesday’s charges, Shuey has 33 charges on his arrest record, including six aggravated assaults, five domestic assaults, five failed court appearances, three violation of probation charges and one aggravated kidnapping. Howard said he didn’t know how many of the charges led to convictions.
Shuey is being held on a $82,000 bond and has a court appearance scheduled for Aug. 23.
The events that led up to his arrest Tuesday started about 1 a.m., Crossville detective Bill Padgett said.
“There was a domestic between (Shuey) and his wife, and he left the house and went over to his mother’s house,” Padgett said.
He said Shuey took his 2-year-old and 5-month-old daughters to his mother’s house with him.
Once there, Shuey and his mother got into a fight, Padgett said. Shuey “took money and held (his mother) against her will,” he said.
When Shuey left his mother’s house with his daughters about 5:30 a.m., she called police. Officials found his general location when he called his wife later in the day from a pay phone in Ringgold, Ga.
“He wanted her to come where he was at,” Padgett said, adding there is “no rationale at all” as to why Shuey traveled to Georgia.
But it all fits a pattern Shuey has established in the past, Padgett said.
“He just gets angry, and then he’ll call (his wife) and he’ll have her come there,” Padgett said. “And if she doesn’t, he’s going to do something with the kids.”
Padgett said he doesn’t know of any “direct threats” Shuey made against his children, but Shuey told his wife she might never see them again if she didn’t meet him.
Crossville police gave Catoosa County, Ga., authorities a vehicle description and a license plate number, Padgett said.
On Cloud Springs Road in Fort Oglethorpe, Catoosa County Deputy Tim Busby spotted the raised hood of the white Cadillac Shuey reportedly was driving. Busby arrested Shuey outside the car without resistance about 11 a.m. Tuesday, Catoosa County Sheriff Phil Summers said.
Padgett and another officer went to Georgia on Wednesday to pick up Shuey.
Padgett said he expects Shuey will seek a bond reduction during the Aug. 23 court appearance.
“You’re looking at a pretty major case, I’d say,” he said.