I-TEAM: Facebook video lands Burke County man in jail for ‘eavesdropping’

WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A Burke County man was put in jail and charged with a felony after a Facebook live video he took was seen thousands of times.

The video was shot by Jeremy Huffman and shows a group of people who are staying next door.

Huffman captured the video on his property.

In court on Friday, Huffman faced an eavesdropping charge.

The I-TEAM was there in court and spoke with Huffman’s family. The I-TEAM also heard from the Burke County sheriff.

Huffman took the video on Thursday.

In the video, Huffman put a ladder up against a tree on his property, climbed it and started filming.

It showed a large crowd of people, tents and loud music.

“The Burke County Sheriff’s Office will probably take me to jail or do something to me,” said Huffman in the video.

Around 45 minutes later, Burke County deputies were at Huffman’s house.

While on scene, deputies say they met with a complainant, who reported suspicious activity near the property.

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According to a press release by the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, the complainant was in his tent on the property when he heard noises coming from a wooded area next to his location.

Upon investigation, the complainant discovered an individual, identified as Huffman, in a nearby tree.

According to the press release, Huffman was allegedly recording the complainant and the surrounding area on a cell phone.

In Huffman’s video, you can hear deputies instruct him to get out of the tree.

Huffman did climb down the tree and was arrested and charged with eavesdropping, which is a felony.

A statement by the sheriff’s office says this is one of several calls they’ve responded to over the past year involving both landowners.

On Friday, Huffman was in court for his bond hearing, where a judge gave him a $2,500 bond.

The I-TEAM was with Huffman’s family and attorney, who say they’re moving aggressively to have the charges dismissed.

“I’ve not seen anything like this. There is no criminal offense here. His arrest is not consistent with the statute they arrested him for. There is no crime. He was on his own property, doing what he was allowed to do. He did not surveil and did not do anything that is violative of this statute, period. It was an erroneous arrest by law enforcement. There is no factual or legal basis for it whatsoever. He was on his own property,” said Huffman’s attorney, Christopher Connell.

Connell says the whole thing is confusing to him.

“I am perplexed. I have never seen anything like it. I don’t know if you have ever seen anything like it, but I have been doing this for 30 years and this is all very different and new to me,” said Connell.

Sheriff Alfonzo Williams made to his own Facebook live video on the sheriff’s office Facebook page to share his side of the arrest.

“I’m just being as open and transparent and as straightforward as I can be. I’m not taking any sides here. I’m on the side of what is lawful,” said Williams in the Facebook live video.

Williams pointed to several past incident reports.

“In a majority of cases, Mr. Huffman has been taunting these folks. In several cases, they found he had several speakers on the border of his property and that they found the music to be excessively loud. While there’s no ordinance against this, it exacerbates the problem,” said Williams.

Huffman’s family did report to Burke County that the neighbors were firing guns often.

As for Huffman, his family says he bonded out on Friday evening.

The I-TEAM is continuing to dig into more information about the county ordinance, the felony charge Huffman has and who the group is that lives next door.

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