FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

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No. 1D18-1562

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NICKESHA REID,

Appellant,

v.

TACHITA SAUNDERS,

Appellee.

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On appeal from the Circuit Court for Duval County.

Donald R. Moran, Judge.

September 25, 2019

KELSEY, J.

Ms. Saunders’s husband fathered a child with Ms. Reid. He 

stayed married, and financially supported that child. But the two 

women cannot get along. Ms. Saunders previously obtained a 

stalking injunction against Ms. Reid that we vacated on appeal in 

2017. Reid v. Saunders, 230 So. 3d 1288 (Fla. 1st DCA 2017).

In 2018, Ms. Saunders obtained a new permanent stalking 

injunction against Ms. Reid. The evidence for this new injunction 

included e-mails from 2005 and 2009, and a text message from 

2016 sent from Ms. Reid to Ms. Saunders’s husband concerning 

child support; as well as a few incidents when Ms. Saunders saw 

Ms. Reid at or near Ms. Saunders’s home and neighborhood. In 

addition, Ms. Saunders’s husband testified to incidents involving 
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phone calls from Ms. Reid, her driving past Ms. Saunders’s house, 

and her contacting Ms. Saunders’s workplace.

Ms. Reid argues that the evidence was insufficient to support 

a stalking injunction and failed to establish a well-founded fear. 

The tone of Ms. Reid’s ongoing communications was unpleasant 

and uncivil, and likely had a negative effect on Ms. Saunders and 

her husband. However, under the pertinent statutes and case law, 

Ms. Reid’s distasteful actions and communications do not rise to 

the level required to support a permanent injunction against 

stalking. We reverse it.

The pertinent statutes require that the evidence in support of 

a stalking injunction be sufficient to produce substantial emotional 

distress in a reasonable person. See §§ 784.0485(2), Fla. Stat. 

(defining stalking); 784.048(1)(a) (defining harassment as causing 

“substantial emotional distress” and “serv[ing] no legitimate 

purpose”); 784.048(1)(d) (defining cyberstalking as requiring that 

it cause “substantial emotional distress” and “serving no 

legitimate purpose”). We have rejected as legally insufficient 

evidence similar to that presented here. E.g., Mitchell v. Brogden, 

249 So. 3d 781, 782 (Fla. 1st DCA 2018) (listing illustrative cases). 

Much of the evidence adduced in support of this new 

injunction was the foundation of the earlier injunction, and we 

rejected it as insufficient. It still is. At this point it is also stale, 

and cannot reasonably form the basis of a claim of present 

substantial emotional distress. The newer evidence is of the same 

character, and remains insufficient. Communications about child 

support, although worded harshly, serve an underlying legitimate 

purpose and do not support the injunction. See Alter v. Paquette, 

98 So. 3d 218, 220 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012) (holding text messages about 

repayment of a loan cannot be said to serve no legitimate purpose). 

Overall, the evidence fails to establish that a reasonable person 

would suffer substantial emotional distress from Ms. Reid’s words 

and actions. But, because this situation continues to require the 

courts to expend limited public resources, we find it appropriate to 

echo another court’s recommendation that parties in this kind of 

situation should strive to improve their behavior and their

relationships through counseling and obtain legal counsel if 

necessary. See Richards v. Gonzalez, 178 So. 3d 451, 454 (Fla. 3d 
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DCA 2015) (“If some form of consensual mediation or counselling 

is unavailing and future petitions eventuate, the parties might 

consider seeking legal assistance, paid or pro bono, to focus their 

legal theories and presentation of evidence.”).

REVERSED.

ROBERTS and ROWE, JJ., concur.

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Not final until disposition of any timely and 

authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or 

9.331.

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Nickesha Reid, pro se, Appellant.

Tachita Saunders, pro se, Appellee.