SCOTT ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE v. STATE OF FLORIDA
This text of SCOTT ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE v. STATE OF FLORIDA (SCOTT ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE v. STATE OF FLORIDA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOURTH DISTRICT
SCOTT ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE, Appellant,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, Appellee.
No. 4D21-1411
[February 1, 2023]
Appeal from the County Court for the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, Okeechobee County; William Wallace, Judge; L.T. Case No. 472018MM001209A.
Carey Haughwout, Public Defender, and Ross Frank Berlin, Assistant Public Defender, West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Ashley Moody, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Anesha Worthy, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
All motions for rehearing en banc, rehearing by the panel, written opinion on an unwritten topic, clarification, and certification of questions of great public importance are denied.
CONNER and FORST, JJ., concur. ARTAU, J., dissents from denial of the rehearing motions with an opinion.
ARTAU, J., dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s denial of the defendant’s motions for rehearing and rehearing en banc. I would grant the motions based on the intra-district and inter-district conflict in the decisional law interpreting the stalking statute previously discussed in my dissenting opinion in this case.
Moreover, because I believe the decisional law interpreting the stalking statute needs clarification in terms of how it can, or even should, be applied in circumstances such as those that were presented in this case, I would grant the defendant’s motion for certification to the supreme court of the following two questions of great public importance:
1. DOES AN ACTION SERVE “NO LEGITIMATE PURPOSE” WITHIN THE MEANING OF SECTION 784.048(1)(A), FLORIDA STATUTES, WHEN THE ACTION IS NOT ENTIRELY BEREFT OF A VALID PURPOSE?
2. DOES AN ACTION CAUSE “SUBSTANTIAL EMOTIONAL DISTRESS” WITHIN THE MEANING OF SECTION 784.048(1)(A), FLORIDA STATUTES, IF A REASONABLE OBSERVER WOULD NOT SUFFER SIGNIFICANTLY GREAT SUFFERING, DANGER, OR DESPERATE NEED AS A RESULT OF THE ACTION?
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Final Upon Release; No Motion for Rehearing Will Be Entertained.
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