WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A Burke County man was jailed and charged with a felony after a Facebook Live video he took was viewed thousands of times.

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

Huffman filmed the video on his property.

In court Friday, Huffman faced a wiretapping 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 Thursday.

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

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

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

About 45 minutes later, Burke County deputies were at Huffman’s home.

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

MORE FROM THE I-TEAM:

According to a news release from 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, appellant discovered an individual, identified as Huffman, in a nearby tree.

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

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

Huffman climbed the tree and was arrested and charged with wiretapping, which is a felony.

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

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

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

“I have not seen anything like it. There is nothing criminal here. His arrest does not comply 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 supervise and did not do anything illegal against this statute, period. It was a wrongful arrest by the police. There is no factual or legal basis for it,” said Huffman’s attorney, Christopher Connell.

Connell says it’s all confusing to him.

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

Sheriff Alfonzo Williams did his own Facebook Live video on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page to share his side of the arrest.

“I’m just as open and transparent and as straightforward as I can be. I’m not taking sides here. I’m on the side of what’s legal,” Williams said in the Facebook Live video.

Williams pointed to several previous incident reports.

“In most cases, Huffman has mocked these people. In several cases, they found that he had multiple speakers on the border of his property and that they thought the music was excessively loud. Although there is no ordinance against this, it exacerbates the problem, says Williams.

Huffman’s family reported to Burke County that the neighbors often shot guns.

The I-TEAM continues to dig into more information about the county ordinance, the criminal charges Huffman has and who the group is who lives next door.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.