Blackberry Smoke bassist faces aggravated stalking charge

Richard Turner (Credit: Cobb County Sheriff’s Office)

Richard Turner (Credit: Cobb County Sheriff’s Office)

The bassist for Atlanta-based country band Blackberry Smoke may have to hang around after the band’s Oct. 29 Laid Back Festival show in Atlanta, according to a motion filed in Cobb County Superior Court.

Richard Turner is due in court Oct. 31 for a bond revocation hearing related to an aggravated stalking charge from last year. The 51-year-old is accused of trying to track his ex-wife’s car with a GPS device.

Though Turner has been out of jail since his Oct. 6, 2015, arrest in Cobb, he hasn’t necessarily stayed out of trouble and the state filed a motion to revoke the bassist's bond.

Some of the conditions of his bond include not breaking any laws, not drinking alcohol and not taking drugs. Turner is also barred from contacting his ex-wife or his son. He may not possess firearms.

Maddox Kilgore, Turner's criminal defense attorney, is currently representing Justin Ross Harris in his Brunswick murder trial and may try to postpone the hearing. Kilgore could not be reached for comment.

If Turner’s bond is revoked, he would be jailed until his trial, which is set for Dec. 5.

Blackberry Smoke has shows scheduled nationwide through the end of the year and in Europe early in 2017.

Even if Turner avoids jail time for the felony aggravated stalking charge, he may face civil liability, attorney Owen Farist said Wednesday.

“We expect to file a lawsuit for invasion of privacy on behalf of Ms. Marianne Turner stemming from the attachment of a hidden, GPS tracking device on her vehicle,” Farist said.

Farist works with attorney Chuck Backman, who recently filed a similar civil lawsuit against a private investigator for invading a woman’s privacy with a tracking device on her SUV. She panicked when she found what she thought was a bomb under her SUV, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

Backman called the use of such tracking devices an “invasion of privacy.”

RELATED: Woman sues private investigator after finding tracking device on car