Taking to social media, country music star and Effingham County native Billy Currington said he couldn’t discuss the recent indictment and bench warrant for his arrest stemming from an April 15 incident.
A Chatham County grand jury indicted Currington on one count of terroristic threats and one count of abuse of an elder person. Currington is accused of threatening bodily harm to Charles Harvey Ferrelle and “did willfully inflict mental anguish” by threatening bodily harm.
Grand jurors returned a true bill of indictment Wednesday, and a bench warrant for his arrest was issued later Wednesday. He was booked into the Chatham County Jail on those two charges late Thursday afternoon. Bond was set at $27,700.
In an incident report filed with the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department, Ferrelle said Currington “threatened his life” while Ferrelle had customers on a boat tour off Tybee Island. According to the report, Ferrelle, a charter boat captain, had two people on his boat when a man began screaming at them from a house on San Marco Drive.
When Ferrelle piloted his boat on the return trip, the same man was in his own boat with a camera and followed Ferrelle’s craft back to A.J.’s Dock. The man got out of his boat and threatened Ferrelle, according to the report.
Ferrelle told officers he didn’t hear what the man yelling at the boat said, but his passengers pointed it out to him. Ferrelle said he didn’t know why the man was yelling threats and shouting profanities at him.
After taking his customers to Cockspur Island to show them the lighthouse, Ferrelle began his return trip to the dock and passed by the house again. He said the man, later identified as Currington, was in his boat with a camera and pursued them. Ferrelle said Currington threatened his life in front of his passengers, a couple from Alberta, Canada.
The next day, a woman identifying herself as the caretaker of an elderly man living at the same San Marco Drive address said she wanted to file a report because a boat going by the house almost knocked the elderly man sitting on the dock into the water. Officers informed her there was already a report in reference to allegations that Currington was belligerent to a charter boat operator. The woman said it was the same incident she was referring to.
“What is it we can do to keep people from coming up on our docks or swamping our docks?” she asked officers. Officers told her they had a talk with Currington on the same issue at Tybee’s Octoberfest. She responded that Currington also wanted to sign a warrant against Ferrelle and she could arrange a meeting with Currington so authorities could get his side of the story.
Currington tweeted his thanks to 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 have your support during this time.”
Currington is on tour and played last Saturday at the Crawfish Festival in Biloxi, Miss. He is scheduled to play Friday night at Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder, La., and Saturday night at The Swamp in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.
