Ooltewah man arrested for allegedly stalking female student on Southern Adventist University campus

An Ooltewah man has been arrested for allegedly stalking a female student on the Southern Adventist University campus, according to a news release from the Collegedale Police Department.

Paul Michael Germaine, who has no affiliation with Southern Adventist, was arrested Thursday night at his home, the release said.

On March 5, a female student reported that she had seen an older man following her around campus and into the school cafeteria where he appeared to watch her eat with friends. Later that day, the student reported the same man standing by her car when she left her dormitory.

As the student approached her car, she said, the man walked to his own vehicle, pulled a backpack from the car and began to approach her while his hand was inside the backpack. She said she stopped and ran back to her dorm while the man returned to his car and fled the scene, the news release said.

The student then called the school's Campus Safety Department, which reached out to Hamilton County dispatch for a Collegedale police officer to respond. A month later, the student reported the same man was back on campus and following her again.

Southern Adventist provided video surveillance footage of the man to Collegedale police, who shared it with other Chattanooga-area agencies to obtain an identity. An Ooltewah High School resource officer later identified the man as Germaine. The resource officer told investigators he had encountered Germaine in October 2021 after Germaine, who had no affiliation with Ooltewah High or any of its students, had been caught filming cheerleaders and acting strangely during a football game, according to the news release.

An investigation found Germaine had been confronted in October 2019 for allegedly filming college women at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's campus and had allegedly filmed female shoppers at the Walmart on Signal Mountain Road in May 2021.

Germaine is out on a $35,000 bond. His first court date has been set for Aug. 24 in Collegedale.

- Compiled by Kim Sebring

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