Ort will not be in court today.
Ort, whose given name is William Orten Carlton, and who has been a longtime fixture on the Athens scene, surrendered himself Monday night to the Clarke County Jail on a probation violation warrant connected with a handful of citations issued by Athens-Clarke County’s Community Protection Division regarding conditions at his Sharon Circle residence in the Homewood Hills subdivision.
A probation revocation hearing had been scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in Municipal Court, but that hearing has been postponed as the result of an agreement between Carlton’s attorney and the Athens-Clarke County Attorney’s office. According to County Attorney Bill Berryman, his office assented to a request from Carlton’s attorneys for a continuance to give their client some additional time to address conditions at his home.
Carlton has been out of jail since Tuesday, when a consent agreement between his attorney and the county attorney’s office allowed him to leave confinement without having to post bond.
Based on neighborhood complaints, Carlton was cited last October for having a junked vehicle in his yard, a storage shed damaged by a fallen tree, and an accumulation of debris in his carport. He was placed on six months’ probation in a May trial in Municipal Court, and the probation violation warrant was issued earlier this month as a result of continuing violations at his property, according to CPD administrator John Spagna.
Carlton, whose love for craft beer, old vinyl records, road trips and radio stations — and his writing on those subjects — have endeared him to many Athenians and former Athenians, has seen an outpouring of support since news of his arrest became public. Among those expressions of support has been an online crowdfunding effort that has raised a few thousand dollars to help him clean up his property.
According to Berryman, the probation revocation hearing likely will be held sometime within the next couple of weeks.