A local man accused of attacking and injuring the Bartholomew County Sheriff didn’t even know who the sheriff was before making threats on his life.
Seconds after being told that Matt Myers was sheriff, Justin C. Eddelman told one of Myers’ employees that “I hate him. I cannot be face-to-face with him, I’m going to wring his neck like a chicken,” court documents charging Eddelman state.
Those details are in a probable cause affidavit filed by Sheriff’s Detective Dane Duke against Eddelman, 32, who is accused of threatening and injuring Myers in the lobby of the Bartholomew County Jail on June 15.
Eddelman has been formally charged with battery with bodily injury to a public safety officer, a Level 5 felony, as well as two Level 6 felonies, resisting arrest and intimidation. If found guilty of all three counts, Eddelman, of 918 Lafayette Ave., could be sentenced to as many as 11 years in prison.
The defendant is scheduled for an initial hearing at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the matter will likely be conducted through a video conference between the jail and Benjamin’s courtroom.
When Eddelman entered the jail lobby at approximately 9:45 a.m. Monday, he approached the front desk where Breanna Martoccia of the Records division was at the front desk, and asked her to speak to the sheriff, according to the court affidavit.
Before Martoccia could respond, Eddelman asked her who the sheriff was. His threat against Myers came after Martoccia identified Myers, Duke wrote.
As Eddelman began walking up the staircase toward the administrative offices, Sheriff’s Matron Vicki Thompson called ahead to warn that a man who was threatening to kill Myers was heading their way, the affidavit stated.
Since the administrative office doors were locked, Eddelman could not get inside, and Myers attempted to question the suspect through the locked door, the affidavit stated. After Eddelman began backing up, the sheriff came out to question him face-to-face about his earlier threats, Duke wrote. That’s when Eddelman began his attempt to physically hurt Myers, the affidavit states.
“Justin pushed (Myers) into the wall and kicked him in the left knee,” the affidavit stated. “As a result of being kicked in he left knee, Sheriff Myers sustained an injury.”
After Eddelman was taken into custody, Myers was treated at the scene, and deputies took Eddelman to Columbus Regional Hospital for a mental health evaluation before he was returned to the jail.
There have been at least two other physical confrontations against local officers that Eddelman has been involved in over the past five years, court records state. Eddelman is now on probation for a January 2019 case in which he pleaded guilty to battery by bodily waste against a public safety official.
That charge stems from two Columbus police officers who reportedly found Eddelman intoxicated and unresponsive on a bench in a downtown Columbus alley. After the officers woke him for a welfare check and asked if he had a place to stay, Eddelman called the officers an obscene name “and advised he would end us,” CPD officer Trenton Browning wrote in a court document.
After being handcuffed for resisting arrest, Eddelman kicked Browning in the right shin while being placed in a patrol car, the report states. When he was later taken from the car into the jail, Eddelman lunged at Officer Chad Lehman and spit in his face, according to Browning’s account. Last January, he was put on probation for approximately a year-and-a-half.
But since Eddelman violated terms of his probation by fighting Myers, he has been ordered held without bond, according to jail commander Major John Martoccia, who is Breanna Martoccia’s father.
Eddelman was also accused of attempting to bite and kick CPD officers while being handcuffed during a Sept. 22, 2015 incident. He was being taken into custody for driving while intoxicated after his truck sideswiped a street sign, as well as for leaving a downtown bar without paying his bill, according to court documents.
Although he plead guilty to driving while intoxicated, this case was handled through Veteran’s Court. While records show a few minor infractions and a hospitalization, Eddelman was eventually found in compliance with his Veteran’s Court agreement, and the 2015 charge was dropped after three years.
