A Carter County man arrested over the weekend is the first person in Carter County to face special bond conditions under a state law that went into effect on Friday designed to toughen penalties for repeat driving under the influence offenders.
Officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Christopher Tyler Price, 24, of 137 A. O. Buckles Road, Elizabethton, on Saturday morning and charged him with second offense driving under the influence, driving on a revoked license, possession of drug paraphernalia, simple possession of Schedule II drugs, and violation of financial responsibility.
On Tuesday, Price appeared in Carter County General Sessions Court, where Judge Keith Bowers Jr. set a special condition for Price’s bond that will require Price to be fitted for a transdermal ankle bracelet monitoring device in order to be released from jail. Under state law, a “transdermal monitoring device” is defined as “any device or instrument that is attached to the person, designed to automatically test the alcohol or drug content in a person by contact with the person’s skin at least once per one-half hour regardless of the person’s location, and which detects the presence of alcohol or drugs and tampering, obstructing, or removing the device.”
In 2014, state legislators passed a law that allows the court to order transdermal monitoring devices, or another alternative monitoring device, as a condition of pretrial diversion, parole, probation or DUI probation if it is the opinion of the District Attorney General, parole board or court that the defendant’s use of alcohol or drugs was a contributing factor to the defendant’s unlawful conduct.
This year, the Legislature passed a law, which went into effect on Friday, July 1, that allows judges to order monitoring devices for defendants charged with driving under the influence, vehicular assault, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular homicide or aggravated vehicular homicide. The new law states that when a court is determining the amount and conditions of bail for a defendant charged with any of those offenses “the court shall consider the use of special conditions for the defendant” including the use of transdermal or other monitoring devices. However, if the defendant has one or more prior convictions of driving under the influence, vehicular assault, aggravated vehicular assault, vehicular homicide or aggravated vehicular homicide on their record, state law says “the court shall impose the use of special conditions for the defendant including” the use of transdermal or other monitoring devices.
Bowers also set Price’s bond at $1,500 and scheduled him to return to General Sessions Court on August 9. As of Wednesday evening, Price had not yet posted bond and remained held in the Carter County Detention Center.
Price was convicted of driving under the influence in June 2015 and is currently serving a probation sentence on that offense. He also has a pending charge of violation of probation related to that case.
The most recent charges against Price stem from an incident on Saturday, July 2, after deputies with the Carter County Sheriff’s Office responded to a local service station on a report of a suspicious vehicle. CCSO Deputy Joshua Hopkins arrived on scene and spoke with an employee of the store. The woman reported a small red car cad been sitting in the parking lot for a while and “the driver was acting like he was on narcotics,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins approached the vehicle and spoke with the man before asking him to submit to a series of field sobriety tests, which Hopkins said Price failed to perform correctly.
When he searched Price’s vehicle he located a glass pipe, a plastic baggy which appeared to contain methamphetamine and another plastic baggy which Price said contained cocaine, Hopkins said. Price also had a packet of Suboxone in his wallet which he could not provide a prescription for, Hopkins said.