Posted by Nydia Streets of Streets Law in Florida Domestic Violence
Florida stalking injunctions are designed to address situations in which a person repeatedly follows, contacts, or harasses another person without any reason to do so, and in doing so causes the victim substantial emotional distress. In a recent appellate case, a mother was accused of stalking her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. The case is Savage v. Bustillo, 1D2023-2687 (Fla. 1st DCA December 11, 2024).
The grandmother was accused of repeatedly contacting her son and daughter-in-law despite being told by both that they did not want any contact with her. The grandmother is alleged to have enrolled her own daughter in the same ballet class as her granddaughter. The grandmother was also accused of contacting her son and daughter-in-law on social media and making posts about them. The son testified at the hearing on the injunction that his mother’s messages were not threatening but they made him uncomfortable. The grandmother defended on the ground that these were family issues that needed to be addressed in therapy rather than by an injunction. The trial court entered an injunction against the grandmother and she appealed.
The appellate court reversed, holding “To support their requests for injunctions, the Bustillos relied on these allegations: (1) Savage showed up at her son’s workplace without an invitation; (2) Savage enrolled her daughter in the same ballet intensive as the Bustillos’ daughter (Savage’s granddaughter); (3) Savage repeatedly contacted the entire family by text or through social media; (4) Savage sent messages for the family through Kristen’s mother; and (5) Savage continued to try to contact the family even after they sent her a certified letter asking her to cease and desist all contact. None of the text messages in evidence were threatening. Kristen testified that Savage had tried to make contact about twenty times in the last six months, and Rudy agreed that there had been fewer than fifty attempts during that time. This court has found that the type of conduct described by the Bustillos would not cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress.”
The court concluded “At most, the Bustillos showed that they were uncomfortable around Savage. But their discomfort is not enough to support imposing an injunction. ‘As this court has noted, the stalking statutes authorizing protective injunctions are not designed to ‘keep the peace’ between neighbors ‘who for whatever reason, are unable to get along and behave civilly toward each other.’ Brennan v. Syfrett, 369 So. 3d 320, 323 (Fla. 1st DCA 2023) (quoting Paulson, 251 So. 3d at 990). Savage’s acts fail to support an objectively reasonable fear of the type of malicious behavior the statute was designed to protect against.”
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