A $60,000 bond was set at a first appearance in court for comedian Micah “Katt” Williams, who was arrested Tuesday and faces charges he threatened to kill his bodyguard.
Williams, 44, and two female acquaintances are now accused of confining and assaulting Corey Dixon on Feb. 28 after he did not engage in criminal acts as directed by Williams, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
An investigation began March 1, and sheriff’s office deputies executed a search Tuesday of Williams’ home on Lake Breeze Lane in the gated lakeside Harbour Point subdivision off Dawsonville Highway.
It was the second arrest in Hall County in as many weeks for the man. He was arrested Feb. 29 on a misdemeanor battery charge in Gainesville after a store employee at Leslie’s Pool Supplies on Dawsonville Highway told police Williams punched him during an argument. Williams was released on $5,000 bond on that charge.
Despite state recommendations to deny bond for the most recent arrest, Hall County Magistrate Court Judge Elizabeth Reisman said she had to take Williams’ lack of felony convictions into account.
“Our position was there was nothing under the law that would deny him bond, and under the facts and circumstances clearly he was eligible for bond, as the judge ruled,” said Williams’ attorney Drew Findling. “The charges were aiding and abetting an aggravated assault. There was no allegation whatsoever that Katt Williams laid a finger on one person at all. He’s not charged with physically assaulting anybody.”
A female acquaintance, Tatiana Smith, 24, is accused of choking Dixon and assaulting him with a baseball bat.
The state recommendation was to deny bond for Smith because of the seriousness of the attack. Reisman elected to not set bond Wednesday, but once Smith appoints an attorney, she can file a motion for bond in superior court.
Along with the two counts of aiding and abetting an aggravated assault, Williams is charged with one count possession of a firearm, one count possession of marijuana, one count false imprisonment and one count terroristic threats.
“As to the terroristic threats, there was a total lack of clarity,” Findling said. “The marijuana was a last-minute allegation against him, for which somebody else has already made bond.”
Findling credited Reisman for “taking the law of Georgia into account in rendering her decision.
“For 18 months he was really unheard of in Hall County,” Findling said. “He’s been residing here full time when he’s not performing, and he led a peaceful existence until an incident the other day.”