The Blairsville man arrested in November 2022 for threatening two teens with a handgun in the McDonald’s drive-thru is back behind bars after violating the terms of his probation prohibiting contact with the victims and their families, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office.
In February 2024, Terry Robert Anderson entered an Alford plea to two counts of aggravated assault in the drive-thru incident.
Continue reading with a subscription.
North Georgia News — serving Union County since 1909.
Cancel anytime.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an Alford plea is “a guilty plea entered by a criminal defendant who does not admit guilt but nevertheless pleads guilty as part of a plea bargain.”
Anderson received a sentence of seven years on probation in the case. He was also to have “no contact of any kind” with the victims and their immediate families as a special probation condition, according to sentencing documents.
Fast forward to June 27, 2025, when UCSO received a warrant to arrest Anderson for probation violation, issued by the Georgia Department of Community Supervision. Sheriff Shawn Dyer said Anderson had “made contact with some of the victims’ family,” per the warrant.
“Our deputies went down to serve the warrant, and when they got there, he initially opened the door of his house,” Dyer said. “When the deputies told him that they had a warrant for his arrest, he tried to slam the door on them, and they kept him from slamming the door.
“He started bucking up, not wanting to cooperate. And due to his upset demeanor, a struggle took place, and he was tased and taken into custody.”
In addition to his felony probation violation charge, Anderson, 41, has been charged with three felony counts of obstructing or hindering law enforcement officers, three felony counts of terroristic threats and acts, and misdemeanor simple assault, all related to his conduct during arrest.
Anderson is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. He has been denied bond and remained in custody at the Union County Jail at press time.
Based on odor, the arresting deputies suspected Anderson of having been drinking alcohol that day.
At the time of his arrest last month, Anderson was under a special probation condition for alcohol in relation to a separate incident from July 25, 2024, in which he pleaded guilty last September to obstruction of an officer and family violence battery, per court documents.
He received a five-year sentence for that separate incident, with the first 180 days to be served in confinement. As special conditions of his probation, he was required to seek a mental health evaluation and/or treatment and have no contact with alcohol and drugs, per court documents.
As an additional consequence of his second offense, Anderson’s First Offender status was retroactively revoked in his 2022 case involving the teenagers, and he was adjudicated as guilty of both aggravated assault counts in that same case, per court documents.
