A local man charged with violating a judge’s order to stay away from the victim in the case against him will remain in jail without bond following a court appearance on Friday morning.
Eric Lee Miller, 38, of 1955 Gap Creek Road, Elizabethton, appeared in Carter County General Sessions Court Friday to be arraigned on two new charges of violation of an Order of Protection.
On Jan. 28, officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Miller and charged him with aggravated assault and especially aggravated kidnapping after he reportedly assaulted an elderly man and held him hostage inside his home. The alleged victim, Olen Pate, told officers Miller became violent, hit him, threw him to the ground, choked him from behind, and beat him with a wooden cane until it broke.
Pate was granted an Order of Protection by the court on Feb. 8. Under the terms of the order, Miller is to have no contact with Pate either in person, by telephone, by electronic means, or through a third party.
Miller appeared in General Sessions Court on Feb. 17 on the kidnapping and assault charges, and Judge Keith Bowers Jr. lowered his bond to $5,000 and set as a condition of the bond that Miller was to have no contact with Pate. Miller was released from jail later that day after posting bail.
On Wednesday, deputies arrested Miller and charged him with two counts of violation of an Order of Protection. According to court documents, deputies found Miller hiding in a crawl space in the basement underneath Pate’s home. Investigators also located a recording of a phone call Miller reportedly made while he was held at the Carter County Detention Center to Pate where Miller was “verbally abusive” to Pate and told him to drop the charges.
Friday morning Miller appeared before Bowers again.
“The term of the bond was not to go to that home,” Bowers told Miller. “I made that clear. I told you not to go there.”
As Miller stood before Bowers, Assistant District Attorney Todd Hull informed the court that the state had a new violation of probation warrant against Miller they would like for Bowers to sign. The grounds of the violation, Hull said, are the new charges against Miller for violation of an Order of Protection.
Bowers signed the warrant violating Miller’s probation and asked Hull if the State had any position regarding the bond which Miller had posted in the kidnapping case.
“We would ask the original bond be revoked and he be held without bond on the new charges,” Hull responded. Bowers granted the request and revoked Miller’s bond and ordered him held without bond until further order of the court.
Hull asked the court to grant the State some additional time to review evidence regarding Miller’s newest charges.
“We may amend the charge to include coercion of a witness,” Hull said. “We need time to review the phone call from the jail.”
Bowers granted the request and scheduled Miller to return to court on March 13 on all the charges against him. Bowers also appointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent Miller on the new charges against him since they already represented him in the kidnapping case.