From Staff Reports

A grand jury has returned three additional indictments against Steve Blanken, a suspended Grainger County School Board member.

Grainger County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Blanken on Wednesday.

Austin Dalton, reporter for the Citizen Tribune’s sister paper, The Grainger County Journal, has confirmed through official documents that in March of this year, a man named Benjamin Mills allegedly made an attempt on Blanken’s life.

Mills is currently being held in the Grainger County Jail on charges of Attempted First-Degree Murder, Aggravated Burglary, theft and kidnapping.

According to official reports, in March of this year, Blanken and his wife, Glenda, were awoken around 5:20 a.m. when the power went off in their residence.

A call to the power provider confirmed there was no outage in the area and they were advised there was no outage in the area.

Blanken went outside to find his dogs loose and that the power had been turned off at the breaker. After turning the breakers back on and securing his dogs, he went back inside only for the power to go back off roughly five minutes later.

When he went back out, the dogs were again loose.

As he turned the power back on and went to secure his dogs, he heard a man yelling at him for near the family’s chicken coop.

Blanken began to approach the man who allegedly fired a shot in his direction. Blanken retreated to his truck in the driveway and the man fired twice more, hitting the truck’s windshield.

He fled to a neighbor’s home and called 911.

G. Blanken then told deputies that she heard a popping sound before the man entered their home, pointing what she thought was a gun at her.

The man accused her husband of being a pedophile and allegedly told her that Blanken would pay for it.

He told here to get face down on the floor when her phone went off. The man allegedly then took her phone and fled.

She ran to a neighbor’s home to call 911.

While neither Blanken was able to give a useful description, officials were able to trace the stolen phone to a property on Lester Jarnigan Drive.

Officers met with Blanken who removed a small “rat” shot pellet from his stomach.

On May 13, a grand jury indicted S. Blanken on Statutory Rape charges related to an incident involving a 16-year-old girl that Blanken allegedly took to a remote location.

Blanken alleged conduct took place between December of 2025 and February of 2026.

While Blanken has been suspended from the School Board, removed from his position as a substitute teacher and banned from Grainger School property, he remains suspended and not removed as the legal process is resolved.