Athens celebrity Ort is spending the night in the Clarke County Jail after receiving a series of tickets in recent month over his messy yard.
Ort (born William Orten Carlton) was booked into jail at 10:22 p.m. on a probation violation charge. He’s being held without bond.
A warrant was signed out for Ort’s arrest after he allegedly received additional quality-of-life citations regarding his property, according to his attorney, Bill Overend. The charge “ultimately amounts to not keeping his yard clean,” Overend said in a Facebook post.
It’s “very rare” for an warrant to be sworn out in cases involving local quality-of-life ordinances, he said.
Overend said he hopes to get Ort released this morning without paying bail. Therefore, donations to a defense fund are not needed at this time.
Ort—a fixture at the brewpub Copper Creek—is well known for his white beard and love of craft beer, 45s, road trips through the rural South and Flagpole columns on those topics.
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