Ex-Van Buren teacher receives suspended sentence

A former Van Buren teacher who was accused of making a northeast Missouri college student take him on a drug run last October had his sentence suspended June 27.

Adam James Hardin received a five-year suspended sentence by a Lewis County, Missouri judge after pleading guilty to unlawful use of a weapon (carrying a loaded weapon into school, bus, premises, function, a felony).

Hardin was placed on five years of supervised probation, according to court records.

A companion charge was dismissed.

Hardin was charged after taking a Culver-Stockton College student across state lines on October 27, 2018 to get drugs from his West Point house and return to the college. En route Mr. Hardin removed a black semiautomatic handgun from his person and placed it on the center console of his vehicle and stated it was there so he would 'listen and not tell what we were going to do.”

Officers seized 98 grams of marijuana from Hardin's vehicle.

Earlier that day, two Van Buren Community students accompanied Hardin to Culver-Stockton, who invited them to a football game. They told Van Buren CSD board members that Hardin was drinking and driving erratically along the way. The students did not travel back to Iowa with Hardin.

Hardin was hired in August, 2018 as physical education and health teacher at Van Buren Community middle school. Shortly after the charges were filed, Van Buren banned him from the premises and announced to the parents and students that Hardin would not be returning to his job at Van Buren.

Hardin was originally charged with two felonies: carrying a loaded weapon into school, bus, premises, function, a Class E felony and possession of a controlled substance except 35 grams or less of marijuana/synthetic cannabinoid, a Class D felony.

In March, Hardin was ordered to serve 17 days of what the judge described as 'shock detention in the Lewis County Jail”.

Hardin was ordered to pay $300 to the Lewis County Law Enforcement Restitution fund.