> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.shayinformed.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Dismissed grooming case against Graves County teacher headed to grand jury - URL: https://www.shayinformed.com/dismissed-grooming-case-against-graves-county-teacher-headed-to-grand-jury/ - Published: 2026-09-15T00:11:32.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-15T00:11:32.000Z - Author: Shay McAlister - Tags: Covering Kentucky The Commonwealth's Attorney says the evidence is there. The bill's sponsor says the law was misunderstood. Here's where Kentucky's first official grooming case stands today. --- *"I'm Shay McAlister, and this is Shay Informed: an independent, ad-free platform dedicated to honest journalism with compassion and clarity.* *Are you new here?* [*Sign up*](https://www.shayinformed.com/#/portal/signup) *for the free weekly newsletter or subscribe to support our mission and access behind-the-scenes content, podcasts, and in-depth stories reserved for paid subscribers.* --- The dismissed grooming case against a Graves County Middle School teacher isn't over- it's headed to a grand jury next week, according to the Commonwealth's Attorney prosecuting it. And the state lawmaker who wrote the law says the case never should have been dismissed in the first place. 25-year-old Sadie Flores was arrested last month on a charge of Grooming a Minor- a Class D felony under a Kentucky law that had only been in effect a few weeks at the time. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-14-at-3.26.27---PM.png) Sadie Flores According to the arrest citation, the case began when the Graves County School Board was contacted by the parent of a 14-year-old student, after the parent went through the child's phone and found messages with Flores that "were not of a legitimate purpose and were not school-related." The citation also described multiple late-night FaceTime calls, communication across multiple social media platforms that investigators say appeared to be manipulative and beyond a normal student-teacher relationship, and a secret meeting near a school event that Flores wasn't officially part of. At a preliminary hearing, a judge dismissed the charge, citing a lack of evidence that sexual behavior or contact had occurred. "I have heard no testimony that has occurred," the judge said, [according to WPSD](https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/graves-county-judge-dismisses-grooming-charge-against-former-middle-school-teacher/article%5Fc100f759-0acd-4c25-a8e1-a8c6ebd32a7e.html?ref=shayinformed.com). "There may be evidence that that has occurred, and there may be evidence that has not been disseminated yet, but I can only go on what I have been presented today. I'm not finding any probable cause for this offense. The charge will be dismissed." That dismissal raised an obvious question: if a case with allegations like these didn't clear the bar for probable cause, what would? This week, I got some answers. ## Where the investigation stands now Graves County Sheriff Jon Hayden confirmed to me that the investigation into Sadie Flores remains active and ongoing. His office is still reviewing evidence, even after the initial charge was dismissed. The arrest citation indicated investigators had submitted preservation requests for Flores' Snapchat and TikTok accounts. Sheriff Hayden told me Monday those records are extensive and they are still going through them. Commonwealth's Attorney Shannon Powers took that a step further, confirming he intends to present the case to a grand jury next week. Powers told me he believes the evidence needed to file charges is there- and that what happened at the preliminary hearing was less about the strength of the case, and more about a misunderstanding of how the new law is supposed to be applied. He also made a point of clarifying something important: if the evidence shows sexual abuse occurred, he said he would be filing far more serious charges than grooming. In other words, the grooming statute isn't being used here as a stand-in for a stronger case- it's being applied to the specific behavior investigators say they found, which he believes meets the law's threshold on its own. [Kentucky’s new grooming law hits its first legal test- and fails to clear itThe dismissal comes despite a citation describing secretive messages, late-night FaceTime calls, and a meeting kept from parents. “I’m Shay McAlister, and this is Shay Informed: an independent, ad-free platform dedicated to honest journalism with compassion and clarity. Are you new here? Sign up for the free![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/icon/Profile-Pic_2-copy-7e7484ed-904e-4348-9ab9-b0bbe89a1df1.png)Shay InformedShay McAlister![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2026-09-10-at-9.03.47---PM-22920d74-48fd-48de-b289-ea59b3abfcc3.png)](https://www.shayinformed.com/kentuckys-new-grooming-law-hits-its-first-legal-test-and-fails-to-clear-it/) ## "I don't understand that confusion" ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-14-at-7.48.57---PM.png) Rep. Proctor at the January press conference announcing the new bill I also spoke with Rep. Marianne Proctor (R), who sponsored House Bill 4 and has been directly involved in advising on how the law should be interpreted- including, she told me, fielding questions from detectives working this very case. "There have been questions from the detectives about the intent of this bill, and they were just trying to clarify with me if they understood it correctly," Proctor said. According to Proctor, the detective she spoke with understood the law well, but she believes the county attorney who handled the preliminary hearing did not. "He was a little puzzled as to why the county attorney believed that there needs to be sexual contact for this to be grooming, when the bill clearly defines what grooming is to prevent sexual contact," Proctor said. "I just think it's a misinterpretation of the law." That distinction- whether grooming requires proof of sexual contact- appears to be at the heart of why this case was dismissed at all. Proctor pointed to a specific provision in House Bill 4 that she says makes clear grooming and sexual abuse are treated as separate offenses under the law- not one requiring the other. If a perpetrator grooms one child and it leads to sexual contact, she explained, those two charges run concurrently, because the more serious charge takes precedence. But if a perpetrator grooms multiple children- with sexual contact occurring with only one- the charges stack separately. "The fact that they run concurrently already says there doesn't have to be sexual contact," Proctor said. "This bill is trying to prevent that... I don't understand that confusion." She said she wasn't entirely surprised that a new law- especially one built around proving intent, which she acknowledged is inherently difficult to prosecute- would run into early interpretation issues. "It's an intent bill," she said. "Law enforcement has said to me, over and over, before this bill went into effect: 'I could have used this. I could have used this.'" [Shelby County Schools fires basketball coach after sexual misconduct investigationChris Gaither has been terminated from Shelby County Schools. “I’m Shay McAlister, and this is Shay Informed: an independent, ad-free platform dedicated to honest journalism with compassion and clarity. Are you new here? Sign up for the free weekly newsletter or subscribe to support our mission and access![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/icon/Profile-Pic_2-copy-b6a97b8e-66cd-4700-928c-b626c0377872.png)Shay InformedShay McAlister![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8c/19/8c19890d-f21a-4442-8055-5db9783cac58/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2026-01-16-at-5.46.54---PM-8256669d-9f0d-400f-8cb1-2cab8829af53.png)](https://www.shayinformed.com/shelby-county-schools-fires-basketball-coach-after-sexual-misconduct-investigation/) ## What comes next with the court case Proctor emphasized one procedural detail that's easy to miss but matters a lot here: the case was dismissed without prejudice. That's a legal distinction, but a significant one. It means the dismissal wasn't a ruling on the merits of the case- it means the door remains open for prosecutors to bring the matter back with more evidence, which is exactly what Powers now intends to do through the grand jury process. I asked Proctor why she prioritized writing this bill in the first place. Her answer centered on how common- and how often overlooked- grooming behavior is before it escalates. "Because of the prevalence of it, and the innocence of these children," she said. She cited CDC data showing one in four girls and one in 20 boys are sexually abused by age 18- numbers she believes are undercounted. "We've got an epidemic of this problem, and we've got to be able to protect our children." She described how grooming typically unfolds over years, often by someone a child already trusts- a teacher, a coach, a mentor- long before anything becomes sexual. "By the time that the child is in a sexual relationship, it's too late," Proctor said. "The damage is already done. So if we can prevent that kind of mental trauma... then I feel it is our duty to protect our most vulnerable." For now, here's where things stand: the Sheriff's Office is still actively reviewing evidence. The Commonwealth's Attorney says the case will go in front of a grand jury next week, and that if the evidence shows abuse beyond grooming occurred, more serious charges could follow. And the law's own author says the dismissal came down to a misreading of a statute that was deliberately written not to require sexual contact. As Proctor put it, this is still a brand-new law working through its first real test-and, in her view, the system is doing what it's designed to do, even if the early steps looked messy. "It's gone through the appropriate channels," she said. "I don't have any qualms with what's happened... I think everybody just kind of needs to sit tight. Let's let this play out. Let's let the courts do what they do." *Like what you see? 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