A man charged with stealing almost $1,500 in power from North Arkansas Electric Cooperative was again a no show for a court appearance on Monday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Avery Robert Lee has not been in court for slightly more than seven months as of December 5.
His first no show was April 18, an alias warrant was issued May 11 when he again failed to show up for a scheduled court appearance.
There were a large number of no shows for the Dec. 5 court session. Circuit Judge John Putman said it was the most failure to appear warrants he could remember being issued during a single court session over which he has presided.
POWER STEAL
The company that issued Lees $2,500 bond has been given several continuances to provide additional time to locate Lee and bring him before the court.
Lee was living in a house along Jordan Road in Norfork where the meter base was found to have been jumped using electrical wire wrapped in duct tape.
A serviceman for NAEC discovered the tampering in mid-April 2020.
The last person to have an account at the address was reported to have been Lees father. NAEC records show the power had been shutoff for non-payment in early September 2019.
CLAIMS NOT HIS HOUSE
When Lee was initially contacted about the situation, he denied living at the address, but eventually admitted he did live there and also took responsibility for the stolen power.
At the time, Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC) rules did not permit power to be terminated to an account because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was explained to Lee that once the non-shutoff rules were lifted, he would be responsible for paying for the stolen power and a meter-tampering fee. Lee was reported to have agreed.
When the PSC lifted the moratorium on non-payment disconnects, attempts were made by NAEC to contact Lee regarding his situation.
The telephone numbers on the account had been disconnected. NAEC staff then reached out to Lees sister and she said her brother no longer lived at the address.
She said he was a hard person to contact. NAEC contact numbers were left with the sister in case Lee got in touch with her, but when the report was filed in July last year, he had not been heard from.
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