FALLSBURG – After appearing in the Town of Fallsburg courthouse on Monday, December 7, the case against former Ellenville social studies teacher Tom Nolan, in which he has been accused of statutory rape against an Ellenville High School student who was 16 at the time, has been adjourned to January 4. Since the time of his initial arrest on October 22, Nolan was arrested again on November 18, this time in Ellenville, for second degree criminal contempt for having allegedly violated the order of protection against the teenaged victim. Nolan's bail was revoked and he is currently being held in the Ulster County Jail, and will appear in Ellenville's Justice Court on December 15. Nolan has pled not guilty to both sets of charges.

John Ingrassia, Nolan's attorney, said on Tuesday evening that the case may come to a resolution before the next court dates.

"The [Sullivan County district attorney] very well may have presented the case to a grand jury by then; they may have made some type of an offer to resolve the case with Mr. Nolan by then. We'll just have to wait and see," said Ingrassia in a phone interview.

"When a case is pending as a felony, the district attorney does have a certain amount of time — at least six months — to decide what they want to do," continued Ingrassia. "Not that it's going to take that long, but obviously they have a number of cases that they're handling, and each case will get its consideration in due course. So right now, they're still evaluating the case to decide what they're going to do."

When asked, Ingrassia said that he had no comment on the charges filed in Ellenville.