Well this is certainly an unexpected turn of events for country music's most laid back dude.
Yesterday, TMZ broke the news that Billy Currington had taken time away from surfing and harassing sea turtles to allegedly chase down a 70-year-old boat captain who he threatened to f**k up and kill. Now Billy has been charged with making terroristic threats and abuse of an elder person (a felony) and has a bench warrant out for his arrest.
According to the reports, on Tax Day (April 15th), Billy was chilling at a resort area in Georgia (check it out here) when 70-year-old tour boat captain Charles Ferrelle reportedly passed too close to Billy's dock. According to eye witnesses, an old man on the dock was nearly knocked into the water by the boat's wake.
When Ferrelle returned with his two passengers, Billy jumped in his boat and chased the old man down. When he caught up with him, there was a confrontation and that's when Billy allegedly threatened the captain.
Despite it sounding like Billy may have had a good reason to be ticked off by the captain's actions, the grand jury found enough evidence to charge Billy (copy of police report here) and issue the warrant.
Interestingly, according to Taste of Country, two days after the incident and more than a week before the charges, Billy tweeted: harrassing artists often at their home by boat should be illegal. thas all i know.
So far, Billy's camp hasn't made an official statement, but Billy did tweet to his fan after news of the indictment hit, saying:
hey guys, I wanted to thank everyone for the huge amount of support that I have received already. Unfortunately, I can't comment on this
situation as this is an ongoing legal matter. It means a lot to me to have your support during this time
Radio.com did have the chance to speak with Daniel Baxter, Public Information Officer at the Office of the District Attorney, about the incidents.
“The DA hasn’t released a lot of information other than to say that the case will be handled like any other case that comes into the District Attorney’s office,” he said. “There’s nothing special about it or any favoritism or anything like that. It will be handled like any other case.”
Reading the full police report, it sounds like Billy also planned on filing a complaint against Ferrelle, at least according to Ferrelle's wife, although I'm not sure if Billy ever got it done. There's no word yet on whether Billy plans on turning himself in to police due to the warrant or what, but I'll keep you updated as soon as I hear anything new.
On an entirely different note, if you'd like to see a whole bunch of photos of the house where Billy started his "terroristic threats" at, you can check them out here.
