Kicking the bucket will cost

an elderly Fayette man five years in prison, after he was found guilty

last week of damaging a sink and toilet in his county jail cell.

Anthony J. Carter, a perennial

gadfly familiar to many in Fayette government positions for the past two

decades, was sentenced to five years in prison by Superior Court Judge

Christopher C. Edwards. A Fayette jury returned the guilty verdict for

interference with government property and obstruction of a police officer.

Jail personnel testified during

the trial that Carter kicked his cell's sink off the wall and forced the

toilet to overflow by sticking his foot in the device and flushing it.

Jailer Richard Hancock testified

that Carter's toe was bleeding when he arrived on the scene and that the

jail's head nurse examined the injury.

Detention officer Jamie Hart

testified that Carter managed to flood the cell in about two inches of

water.

Carter maintained he was innocent

and that the toilet had already become detached from the wall before the

incident occurred.

Carter, a former mechanic with

the now-defunct Eastern Air Lines, has had a running feud with county

government for more than a decade. At one point he was even charged with

practicing law without a license by an irked judge.

Carter had previously been

convicted of violating several county development ordinances. A jury ruled

that Carter installed a water line that was not up to code, that he improperly

installed a sewage disposal system and he performed excavation work on

his property without a land disturbance permit. In those earlier run-ins

with the law, he was also found guilty of violating a stop work order

on the property after continuing to excavate without a permit.

State Court Judge Fletcher

Sams sentenced Carter to a $1,000 fine and 300 days in jail for the ordinance

violations. Carter was serving that sentence when the current altercation

occurred, leading to the 5-year prison term.

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