Man arrested after road rage incident in Chattanooga has first day in court

Staff Photo La Shawn Pagán / Michael Harvey, the man seen in an Aug. 22 viral video screaming and threatening a woman after she allegedly cut him off, appears at court on Thursday.
Staff Photo La Shawn Pagán / Michael Harvey, the man seen in an Aug. 22 viral video screaming and threatening a woman after she allegedly cut him off, appears at court on Thursday.


A Chattanooga man arrested after being caught on home surveillance video threatening a woman and her son after she allegedly cut him off while driving had his first day in court Thursday.

"We have some medical records that are relevant to the situation that I'm going to provide to the DA's office," Arthur Grisham, the Chattanooga attorney representing Michael Wayne Harvey, told Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Gary Starnes during the hearing.

"He's on disability and (has) chronic depressive disorder," Grisham said, before asking for a new court date to allow documents to be submitted to the prosecution's office.

Harvey, 42, appeared before Starnes to face one count of vandalism/criminal mischief, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of assault charges stemming from the Aug. 22 incident. According to Hamilton County Criminal Court records, he has five previous traffic violations including two speeding violations, one light law violation, one for driving without a license and one for driving in an unregistered vehicle.

Harvey is accused of following a woman and her son to Mountain Creek Road, after she allegedly cut him off as she was trying to merge onto U.S. Highway 27, according to a social media post the woman made as she shared the footage.

Starnes said he would amend the bond order to add a no contact order, meaning "no direct or indirect contact with the victims whatsoever."

In the video footage, Harvey was seen pulling up to the driveway where the woman's vehicle was parked and walking up to the car, banging on her car window while screaming obscenities.

"You ever cut me off again, I'll beat the f--- out of you!" Harvey screamed at the woman who had locked herself and her son in the vehicle. "You know what you did!"

Harvey was then seen pulling at the car door, ripping the handle off, which he threw back at the car while he continued to scream.

"Call the f------ cops! Now I know where you live now," Harvey told the woman in the footage.

Chattanooga police announced in a news release that they were searching for Harvey after the video went viral on social media.

On Sept. 2, Harvey turned himself in to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and was booked into the Silverdale jail without incident.

Harvey completed a mental health treatment program in Memphis after he saw himself in the August video and checked himself into a program, according to his attorney.

"He checked himself into Joe Johnson Mental Health Center and was referred to a facility in Memphis," Grisham told the Chattanooga Times Free Press after the hearing. "He was out in Memphis for about 10 days."

Grisham said he will provide prosecutors with details on Harvey's condition and "what affected him on the day."

"He feels really badly about what happened, very remorseful," Grisham said.

Grisham said that Harvey has had mental health treatment for a number of years and has taken steps to continue to improve -- especially since the August incident.

"I think the more people know about mental health, emotional problems, human dysfunctionality, the better we all are," Grisham said, "the more understanding we can be about people's situations."

Harvey, who is out on a $6,000 bond, is expected to appear before Starnes on Dec. 1.

Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.

  photo  Staff Photo La Shawn Pagán / Chattanooga Attorney Arthur Grisham (Center) stands between his client Michael Wayne Harvey and the woman Harvey can be heard screaming and threatening in a home surveillance video on Aug. 22, on a Thursday hearing before Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Gary Starnes
 
 


Upcoming Events