ALABAMA
Associated Baptist Press
By Bob Allen
An Alabama children’s minister charged with multiple sex crimes remains in jail after his lawyer withdrew a motion for reduced bond and waived a preliminary hearing on Feb. 18.
Attorney Billy Underwood had filed a motion on behalf of Jeff Eddie, longtime associate pastor for children and church administration at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., asking for his bond of $1.03 million to be reduced from $30,000 per count to $5,000 per count.
After conferring with prosecutors at a Tuesday morning hearing in Colbert County district court, however, Underwood advised his client to waive the preliminary hearing and allow the case to proceed to a grand jury in March.
“We didn’t want to inflame the public with what would come out from the preliminary hearing,” Underwood told the Times Daily in Florence, Ala. “And if the bond was lowered enough that he could get out, there might be more charges filed against him and he would be back in jail. So, nothing would be gained by reducing the bond today.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.