BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — An Inez businessman pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning in Martin District Court to criminal charges initiated by the former manager of the Martin County Water District, Craig Miller.
Clarence “Edd” Kazee, 57, faces charges of terroristic threatening and menacing, stemming from a warrant and a criminal complaint signed on Miller’s behalf by Martin District Judge John Chafin.
In these documents, Miller accuses Kazee of threatening to fight him and an Alliance Water Resources employee, Jason “JD” Damron, and of threatening to beat them with a hammer.
Kazee, who was jailed March 12, said he was arrested for the first time in his life for standing up against “two bullies.”
Miller, who resigned from his position last month to take a job in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, alleged in the warrant that on March 9 in Evans Hardware, Kazee confronted him, saying he had been looking for him for over a year, promising a “day of reckoning” and threatening physical harm. In the criminal summons, which Judge Chafin signed on Oct. 20, 2021, Miller accused Kazee of two counts of menacing. Miller claimed that on Oct. 7, 2021, Kazee threatened to fight him and Damron and beat them with a hammer when they visited Kazee’s property to obtain a water use contract.
Kazee recounted that Miller and Damron had repeatedly visited his business, Eddie’s Body Shop, trying to locate an agreement between him and the water district dated from “20-some years” earlier, which they were unable to find.
“We offered to give them a right of way out front; they didn’t want it,” said Kazee. “They wanted to put it in the back of our property, but we wouldn’t let them have it.”
At some point in the past, water district officials showed up with a copy of a right-of-way signed by Kazee’s neighbor, “saying that’s all they need.”
“Come to find out, we’re letting this neighbor use some of our property, and they got him to sign the papers,” said Kazee. “So they got busted coming down through our property with a water line that they don’t have a right of way for.”
Kazee said MCWD years ago installed a water tap and arranged to give him all the water he wanted at no cost. “It wasn’t nothing big. Back then, it was like a $14 water bill. I wouldn’t have cared to pay the water bill. That’s not the issue.”
The issue, according to Kazee, is that Miller and Damron repeatedly came to his property wanting him to find paperwork that the water district should have. “They’re not able to find an agreement; they’re not able to find a right of way; they’re not finding anything,” remarked Kazee.
The situation escalated during one of Miller and Damron’s visits, leading to a heated exchange. Kazee, who had recently recovered from COVID-19 and a heart attack, felt threatened by their aggressive demeanor, which he said forced him to arm himself with a hammer.
“These two big, grown, healthy men are standing out here talking to me like I’m pretty much a bucket of spit in my own house, in my own yard.”
According to Kazee, one of the men pointed his finger toward Kazee’s face from 3 feet away and said, “‘You have nothing to say about anything.’”
Kazee stated that he warned Miller and Damron that they were pushing the situation into a racket and would end up getting a fight out of him and would “have to whip this old man.”
“And Miller at some point said, ‘That won’t be a problem.’”
Following more verbal exchanges, Kazee said, “I see the other big one named JD and he’s done closed up. So I’ve got one on my left side, I’ve got one straight in front of me. I squall at the one called JD and tell him to back up, get away from me, or something to that effect: ‘You better back the blank up or I’m going to pop you in the face.’”
By that time, Kazee believed a fight was imminent. “I run into the garage, and I’m looking for a weapon. I don’t care whether it’s a screwdriver, I don’t care whether it’s a bar, I don’t care what it is. The first thing I find that I think I’m going to have to fight with is a hammer.”
Kazee said when he exited the garage with the hammer, Miller had already gotten into his vehicle and Damron had made it to his truck door.
“Now I’m not throwing anything, I’m not cussing these people, I’m not saying a word to these people,” said Kazee. “The one they call JD, he’s still running his lip, saying, ‘You want you’re a– kicked, you’ll get you’re a– kicked.’ And he just keeps running his mouth.”
Kazee recounted a later encounter with Miller at a local tobacco store, where he left with the impression that he and Miller had agreed the dispute should be settled in court.
Then law enforcement showed up at Kazee’s property and told him to let the water district dig a hole and install a meter or go to jail. “So I have no choice but to let these people do this,” said Kazee.
He said MCWD tore up his water lines, regulator, fence and concrete floor, knocking him out of two days of work and costing him about $1,000.
“They tear up all of this, and they never do see that tap,” said Kazee. “They ain’t never found that tap; they’ve never looked at it. So they just stick a tap in and leave me the whole mess, everything all tore up.”
When Kazee encountered Miller at Evans Hardware one Saturday morning in March, he told Miller what he thought of him.
“I told him if he still wanted to wear me out to bring himself out there in the parking lot and just whip this old man good, to look through it and see how much chicken sh– he found in it, and I bet he didn’t find a drop or something along those lines. I told him what a bully I thought he was.”
The following Tuesday, a deputy showed up at Kazee’s home with a warrant and arrested him.
Kazee’s next court date is set for May 14.
