Hamilton County school board member's son charged with assault

Friday, October 7, 2011

photo Shea Austin Baker, 18, is charged with assault and underage drinking.

The son of a Hamilton County school board member faces charges of assault and underage drinking after a fracas at the Signal Mountain High School football game last week.

Shea Austin Baker, 18, son of District 2 Board of Education member Chip Baker, was arrested Sept. 30 in the school parking lot during the game and charged with assaulting a minor and underage drinking, a police report shows.

Baker, a freshman at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, could not be reached for comment.

Chip Baker, who also is the executive director of Friends of the Festival, which produces Riverbend, said in an email that the arrest is "a family matter."

According to the police report by Signal Mountain Officer Ethan Shults, another officer told him about an alleged assault in the parking lot during the football game. Shults said he spoke to an underage male who claimed that Shea Baker had confronted him and shoved him and that Baker smelled of alcohol.

Shults found Baker with a young woman sharing a cup they said contained wine. Shults said Baker admitted pushing the unnamed teen, saying they had an ongoing feud.

Shults said Baker and his companion, Elizabeth Felder, 19, of Signal Mountain, were "verbally combative." He took them into custody and to the city jail, where Baker was charged with assault on a minor and underage consumption of alcohol.

Felder, 19, was charged with underage consumption.

Signal Mountain police said Baker was released on a $1,500 bond. A court date is pending.