A father and son duo was exonerated by a Coffee County jury this week on charges stemming from an incident that occurred in January 2013. Maurice “Tully” Bland and his son, Bryan , were both acquitted of criminal trespass after authorities alleged they had unlawfully remained on the property of an off-duty law enforcement officer after being told to leave.
Here’s the backstory:
The Blands reside just outside of Broxton and across the highway from their accuser, Norman Dockery. On Jan. 4, 2013, the Blands were getting dogs ready to go on a hunting trip when two of them escaped and one made it near Dockery’s land.
The Blands told the court they have lost several dogs and believed that Dockery was shooting them when they got near or on his land. Dockery called the Department of Natural Resources on the day of the incident to report the Blands for running deer, as he allegedly saw the dog chasing a deer.
The Blands entered Dockery’s private property after the tracking collar on a dog indicated it was on Dockery’s land. The DNR officer had told the Blands to wait off the property until he brought them their dog. The Blands claimed they waited over an hour and said the DNR officer had told them after an hour they could retrieve the animal from the private property.
Upon entering the property, Dockery told the Blands several times to leave. When Maurice Bland exited the truck being driven by his son to check on his dog that was alive in the back of the DNR officer’s truck, Dockery continued telling the Blands to leave his property.
That’s when things got ugly.
There was an altercation and Dockery, a sheriff’s deputy who was off duty at the time of the incident, contacted authorities. The Blands claim that Dockery blocked their truck from leaving by standing in the driver’s side door as it was open and screaming at Bryan Bland. Both sides admitted to a heated exchange. Maurice Bland also alleged that he found five dog collars on the back of Dockery’s dog pen that belonged to some of his missing dogs from prior years.
The DNR officer was finally forced to stand between Dockery and Bryan Bland to prevent a physical altercation and that is when the Blands finally drove away. Once the Blands left Dockery’s property, the DNR officer took the dog to them, along with a warning ticket for running deer.
The Blands were then taken to the sherrff’s office by law enforcement and cited for criminal trespass because they didn’t vacate Dockery’s property after being told to do so.
The jury reached a unanimous verdict of not guilty after about 15 minutes of deliberation.