DECATUR - As the bride, wearing a white dress, and the groom, sporting a red T-shirt and trousers, waited outside Courtroom 3A, along with about 15 guests, the bride was suddenly ushered away for a brief conference with authorities.

The groom, 23-year-old Billy J. Rutherford, was then arrested for violating terms of his bail, which prohibits contact with his alleged domestic battery victim.

The victim was the prospective bride.

At the time of his arrest Wednesday at the Macon County Courts Facility, Rutherford was free on bond in two cases.

In the first case, he was charged with one count of aggravated domestic battery and three counts of domestic battery with a prior conviction for the same crime, according to court documents.

He is facing up to seven years in prison, if convicted on the most serious count.

The victim told police that Rutherford "had been beating on her all day" at her home March 5. The beating included striking her all over her face, head and body; shoving her head into a kitchen cabinet and throwing her through a coffee table.

On March 9, while Rutherford was in jail, the victim was granted an order of protection against him.

Rutherford posted $1,000 cash bail two days later and was released on the condition that he was to have no contact with the victim.

For allegedly violating the order of protection, he was arrested two weeks later, returned to jail and charged with three new felony counts.

On March 27, he posted $5,000 bail and was released again.

Rutherford, slated to appear in court Monday in the domestic battery case and Wednesday in the order of protection case, was hoping to be a married man during those upcoming hearings.

Rutherford and his fiancée, who is not identified because she is a domestic battery victim, had planned to be married by Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith.

At the time of his arrest Wednesday afternoon, Rutherford told officers he wanted to be married by Griffith because he had represented both of them in separate cases earlier, when he was a private attorney.

After Rutherford was arrested Wednesday, he was booked into the jail and later released on bail.

Prosecutors are planning to charge him with violation of bail bond, punishable by up to 364 days in jail.