ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A 29-year-old Jacksonville Beach man who's been in trouble with the law in recent years was arrested early Tuesday morning after deputies said he threatened his Ponte Vedra minister with a chainsaw.
Andrew Hahn was booked into the St. Johns County jail on a charge of aggravated stalking. He was being held on $25,000 bond.
Deputies said that on Sept. 6, Hahn contacted the 53-year-old pastor of a Ponte Vedra church and threatened to harm him with a chainsaw.
Hahn, who attended the same church until he was issued a trespass warning several years ago, continued to harass the pastor and other staff members at the church, deputies said. More recently, witnesses said he had been very angry and volatile.
Hahn was issued a trespass warning to the church after deputies said he was found to be watching children from outside the windows of the church. He was then asked to leave the church and was eventually trespassed because he refused to stay away, deputies said.
Hahn was arrested in June 2008 on a charge of video voyeurism for taking photos with his cellphone of children while they were showering at Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, according to deputies. Hahn pleaded no contest to those charges and was placed on one year of probation, then ordered to undergo psychosexual counseling and given a no trespassing order.
He violated that order in 2010 and was arrested again, deputies said. In that case, Hahn was entered into the pretrial diversion program and the charge was eventually dropped.
On Tuesday Channel 4 went to two churches who said they were familiar with Hahn. The people at Christ Episcopal and Ponte Vedra Presbyterian didn't want to go on camera, but said they were familiar with Hahn and knew his story.
"It's creepy, but I know where my daughter goes to church. But that is creepy," said a neighbor in the area.
Channel 4 spoke with Andrew Hahn in 2008 about the video voyeurism charges at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. Hahn said the charges against him weren't true.
"I have not done anything. The detective has not shown me anything because I've never been arrested for anything or been in any trouble in my life," Hahn told Channel 4 in 2008.