DAVID WADDELL, APPELLANT,
v.
JOSEPH F. DELORENZO, APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court reversed an injunction for protection against repeat violence where the evidence showed only verbal abuse and threats without any actual violence or imminent threat of violence.
An injunction for protection against repeat violence cannot be entered based solely on verbal abuse, profanity, and vague threats without evidence of actual violence or a well-founded fear that violence is imminent.
[1] Evidence of verbal abuse, profanity, and vague threats without any actual violence or observed action creating a well-founded fear of imminent violence is legally insuffi…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“yelling profanities and threats at the petitioner, even after a previous battery by respondent against petitioner, was not sufficient for a finding of "repeat violence" without evidence that respondent took an action creating a "well-founded fear that violence was imminent"”
Court cited Russell v. Doughty standard for what constitutes sufficient evidence of repeat violence
Waddell's neighbor DeLorenzo sought an injunction alleging that Waddell had cussed at him, yelled vague threats from a distance on several occasions, …
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David Waddell appeals from the entry of a Final Judgment of Injunction for Protection Against Repeat Violence, which prohibits him from having any contact with his neighbor, Joseph DeLorenzo. At the hearing, DeLorenzo presented evidence that Waddell had cussed at him and yelled vague threats at him, from a distance, on several occasions. On cross-examination, DeLorenzo admitted that Waddell had never taken any observed action toward violence. Rather, DeLorenzo seemed pri*592marily concerned about the stress caused to both him and his wife by Waddell’s “sly remarks, looks[,]” and pervasive use of profanity. Although DeLorenzo did not testify to a single act of violence against him, the trial judge announced that he was going to enter an injunction to provide a “cooling off period” of about two years “for the sake of peace in the neighborhood.” Because petitioner’s evidence was legally insufficient to support entry of a repeat violence injunction, see, e.g., Russell v. Doughty, 28 So.3d 169, 170 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010) (holding that yelling profanities and threats at the petitioner, even after a previous battery by respondent against petitioner, was not sufficient for a finding of “repeat violence” without evidence that respondent took an action creating a “well-founded fear that violence was imminent”), we reverse.
REVERSED.
PALMER, LAWSON and COHEN, JJ., concur.