A Florida appellate court has reversed a lower court's injunction against a Pensacola-area resident accused of "stalking" his neighbor after evidence on appeal demonstrated the man was merely doing everyday activities like walking his dog, throwing away trash and trying not to get hit by traffic.

According to news reports, Billy Stone routinely takes walks around the circular street he shares with neighbor Teresa McMillian. One day in 2016, McMillian honked her horn and allegedly drove her car at Stone and his dog, prompting them to jump out of the way. Angered by the incident, Stone put a threatening letter in McMillian's mailbox warning her not to "pull another stunt like she did today."

McMillian, claiming she was intimidated by the letter, installed motion-activated sprinklers at her property line and called law enforcement on Stone for putting dog waste in her roadway garbage can and stepping onto her property to avoid being hit by a bus. McMillian filed suit requesting an injunction, telling the court she had received the threatening letter and that her camera showed Stone walking past her property more than 10 times a day on multiple days.

The lower court issued a one-year injunction against Stone prohibiting him from going near McMillian or her property, but after evidence came to light on appeal that Stone, who walks to alleviate anxiety, was walking near McMillian's property to visit with neighbors and to help with the neighborhood watch program he helped develop, the Florida First District Court of Appeal reversed the injunction.

“We do not disagree with Stone’s argument that he walks around his neighborhood, put dog waste in a trash can, and avoided getting hit by a bus for legitimate purposes under (Florida statute),” the court wrote.

Stone’s attorney, Robert Powell of Clark Partington, said his client “feels exonerated that justice was properly meted out” and relieved that the stain on his neighborhood reputation had been removed.

—Source: pnj.com