Davin Eldridge made his first appearance in Macon County Court since being arrested earlier this month on charges of Breaking and Entering. Eldridge was booked into the Macon County Detention Center and held on a $10,000 bond.
After spending more than a week in jail, Eldridge was released on bond. Today was his first court appearance since going before Superior Court Judge Bill Coward who set Eldridge’s bail. According to District Attorney Ashley Welch, the charges against Eldridge were dismissed at the request of the victim, Dorie Leland, who did not want to pursue the matter further.
“When a victim insist that “their” charges be dismissed that they sought then law enforcement doesn’t have a choice in the matter,” said Sheriff Robert Holland. “We only took this case at the request of the interim Chief and the newly hired Chief due to a possible “conflict of interest” that involved one of their officers. The victim in this case deserved to have her incident investigated no matter. We held our end of the bargain and conducted an investigation into the allegations. My detective spent many hours conducting interviews, going through phone numbers and sorting through text messages to identify the source of information sent to the defendant in this case. Through the investigation, it was determined that concerns regarding a conflict on interest were valid. Therefore we put our personal feelings aside and conducted an investigation at the request of the Franklin Police Dept. My officers did an outstanding job gathering the facts and because of where those facts took them, they filed charges. We also discussed it with the District Attorney’s Office during the process of the investigation prior to taking charges.”
According to the arrest warrant taken out by Detective Tony Corbin, Eldridge attempted a breaking and entering at a property on Harper Lane on the night of May 1. In the process, Eldridge damaged two outside window screens, resulting in the misdemeanor charges of attempted breaking and entering and damage to real property. The property owner made the initial complaint to law enforcement, but has since decided not to pursue criminal charges further.
Leland said she wants to put it all behind her.
“I am sorry the charges where dropped,” said Leland. “It’s not fair to the community to pay for his upkeep and if I hadn’t dropped the charges, the judge probably would have. It might have taken a few months, but it would have happened and I couldn’t justify someone else paying a lawyer and time wasted by the courts.”
Eldridge has not yet responded to multiple emails requesting an interview or to answer questions regarding the event.
Be First to Comment