Led into the courtroom Tuesday morning in black-and-gray pinstripes, Ryan Epperson stopped before the judge to await instructions.
He listened while Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Christine Sell ordered him to avoid Erlanger hospital, Parkridge Medical Center and CHI Memorial.
"Absent an emergency, you may not have access to those hospitals," Sell said. "Any of them."
Epperson, the Hamilton County jailer who authorities say posed as a surgeon to enter Chattanooga's three major downtown hospitals to steal narcotics, made his second court appearance Tuesday morning.
He faces multiple drug, vandalism, trespassing and impersonation charges, most of which were bound over Tuesday morning to a Hamilton County grand jury, said Bill Speek, his attorney.
Epperson will appear before Hamilton County Criminal Court in October, Speek said. Until then, he is being held at the Silverdale detention center on a $700,000-plus bond.
"We're focusing on getting him treatment while he's incarcerated," Speek said. "Our focus is going to be keeping another drug addict out of the penitentiary."
Epperson, 26, was caught May 27 in Erlanger hospital, wandering around the surgical suite in scrubs, carrying six vials of the painkiller Demerol in his pocket. He told arresting officers he was "feeding an addiction."
Chattanooga police also found a large bag of narcotics in his truck.
Epperson, who unsuccessfully ran for county register of deeds last year, posted bail shortly after his May arrest. He "did well for a while," staying clean, Speek said.
Then he was arrested again on Aug. 19 after a doctor at Erlanger recognized Epperson from "a picture supplied by hospital security," according to his affidavit.
Between 3 a.m. and 3:45 a.m. on Aug. 15, a nurse heard movement but saw no one. Officials later found the door to the medicine room pried open.
Meanwhile, the narcotics drawer of a computerized drug dispensary cabinet had been tampered with, according to his affidavit.
Speek said Epperson was not selling the narcotics.
Instead, Speek said, "we're dealing with behavior primarily associated with a horrendous addiction."
Contact Zack Peterson at 423-757-6347, zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or Follow @zackpeterson918.