The owner of the newly opened Coaches Corner Sports Grill is currently facing charges of aggravated assault and false imprisonment stemming from an alleged incident that occurred in Spring Hill in July 2020.
Court documents read that the owner of the Spring Hill sports grill, 46 year-old Eric Byford, was alleged to have assaulted his ex-girlfriend in her Spring Hill home on July 21 following another alleged assault days earlier. The earlier alleged assault was reported to police, but did not lead to an arrest.
Obtained from the General Sessions Court of Williamson County, a police affidavit describes the incident in further detail.
Eric Byford's mugshot from his July 23 arrest on charges of aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
Byford had allegedly grabbed the unidentified victim around the neck and slammed her against the wall of her residence before attempting to strangle her, according to the affidavit. The victim managed to escape to her front yard, however, was soon dragged back inside “by her hair into the house, again preventing her from leaving her residence," according to the report.
According to the affidavit, the victim eventually managed to escape, after which she immediately called authorities while driving herself to a nearby emergency room. The affidavit reads that the victim had suffered a fractured thumb after Byford had slammed a door against her hand during the altercation.
Following the victim’s contact with police, an arrest warrant was issued. Byford was placed in custody two days later on July 23.
Byford was charged with aggravated assault, a class C felony, and false imprisonment, a class A misdemeanor. Class C felonies in the state of Tennessee carry a possible sentence of 3-15 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, whereas class A misdemeanors carry a possible sentence of up to nearly a year and a fine of up to $2,500.
According to medical records, the alleged victim had metal screws surgically implanted into her left hand to repair her fractured thumb and underwent eight weeks of treatment. As of Aug. 26, the alleged victim still had difficulty gripping jars, typing and tying shoes, among other things.
Byford has seen multiple arrests throughout the years, including a November 2007 arrest in Davidson County on a misdemeanor charge of domestic assault with bodily injury, though the charge appears to have been dismissed in January 2008.
Byford also appeared in front of the Spring Hill Beer Board in December 2018 when applying for a beer permit for the Coaches Corner. During that meeting, former Alderman Chad Whittenburg noted to Byford that there were a few “concerning items” that appeared in his background check.
Eric Byford appears before the Spring Hill Beer Board in 2018 requesting a beer permit for the Coaches Corner, for which he was ultimately approved.
“We review all the applications, and obviously there’s a background check that goes into that,” Whittenburg said.
“I won’t get into the details about it because that’s private information of yours, but there are a few concerning items in there. I don’t think it’s anything that warrants not approving your beer permit by the state law, but I just want to let you know that it is a concern, just want you to be mindful of that, that you’re going to be serving alcohol in our community — take pride in that.”
The background check, which was conducted by Spring Hill Police Chief Don Brite, found three reported incidents that occurred within roughly one year of each other.
On Sept. 8, 2015, Bedford was a suspect in a domestic assault incident, though no arrest was made. On July 23, 2016, Byford was again a suspect in a domestic assault case with no arrest made.
On Sept. 11, 2016, Byford was a suspect in a harassment incident, though this time an arrest was made.
In the harassment case, an incident report was included in the agenda for the December 2018 Beer Board meeting.
The report reads that on the night of Sept. 11, 2016, Byford had allegedly called an ex-girlfriend 24 times, and later gone to her home and knocked on the door “in a loud and aggressive manner.” With her children at the home, the ex-girlfriend asked Byford to leave, while also calling police.
Byford did leave the property according to the report, with a Spring Hill police officer arriving at the alleged victim’s residence shortly after.
According to the report, the police officer heard Byford making threatening comments on the alleged victim’s cell phone. Police soon arrived at Byford’s home where they found him intoxicated, according to the report. Byford was then arrested and booked on charges of harassment and booked at the Maury County Sheriff’s Department.
When asked to comment on the July 2020 incident, Byford said that due to it being "an open legal matter," he had been advised to not comment further.
"I've not said a word about it because I know what happened," Byford told the Home Page. "All I'm going to say is I have complete faith that justice will be served correctly."
Byford’s court date for the July 2020 incident has been set for Nov. 10 in the General Sessions Court of Williamson County.
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