Updated: 5/29/2009 7:03:02 PM Posted: 5/29/2009 5:06:57 PM
AKRON -- A teacher who fabricated a military background to include combat service in Iraq was released early from prison, having served less than three months of an 18-month sentence for drugs and weapons.
Benjamin Terril, 51, must attend regular meetings with the courts and must maintain residence at his Akron home. Terril was fired as a science teacher at Akron's Buchtel High School after Channel 3's Eric Mansfield exposed that Terril lied on his teaching application by creating a phony military history that included war service and combat medals with the 82nd Airborne. Terril was arrested on Labor Day after he pointed a loaded gun at another man's head. Akron police searched his home and found drugs and what they called "an arsenal" of guns and knives. Police said Terril claimed he had dozens of weapons because he had been in the Army. Through a public records request, Eric Mansfield determined that Terril never served a single day in uniform.
