Latest news with #privateproperty
News.com.au
9 hours ago
- News.com.au
Backstreet Boys star Brian Littrell's bitter battle over private beach
Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell has filed a lawsuit against a Florida county, accusing the sheriff's department of refusing to keep trespassers off his private beach. The 50-year-old said that to protect the 'peaceful enjoyment' of his property in Walton County, Florida, on the Gulf Coast, his limited liability company, BLB Beach Hut LLC, has put up 'no trespassing' signs as well as tables, chairs and umbrellas showing where the property line starts on the beach, according to the lawsuit obtained by Fox News Digital and filed in a Florida court recently. The pop star wrote that the efforts have been 'in vain, as numerous trespassers have set out to antagonise, bully and harass the Littrell family by regularly, every day, trespassing on BLB's beach, on the Subject Property, in open defiance of the law.' The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandamus to require the sheriff's department to keep the alleged trespassers off of his beach. Littrell wrote in the lawsuit that he has been forced to hire security to protect his land and family, and filled out a Walton County Trespass Authorization Form, authorising the sheriff's department to warn and prosecute trespassers on his property. 'Despite BLB's numerous requests and the execution of the required forms, the sheriff has refused to come to the Subject Property to enforce the law and remove the trespassers, to charge the trespassers, or to take any action, at all, thereby refusing to do their duty,' the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit says that on May 4, a sheriff's deputy spoke to an alleged trespasser on Littrell's property, but didn't remove the trespasser or cite them, merely saying that the alleged trespasser ''doesn't agree with private beaches,' going on to characterise BLB's insistence that it's constitutional rights be upheld as 'lunacy,' to use one of the words used by a deputy of the Sheriff's Department.' The lawsuit also claims that on June 5, an alleged trespasser grabbed legal documents related to the dispute out of the property manager's hand 'and scattered the papers into the wind across the beach.' Littrel said BLB also contacted the sheriff's department twice that day regarding the 'aggressor,' but the department 'refused to send any officer.' 'When BLB personnel contacted the Sheriff for the third time to request an officer again, the 911 operator simply hung up on BLB personnel rather than dispatching the officer that was requested more than an hour prior,' the lawsuit states. He claimed that the sheriff's department is now 'openly defying BLB's requests for assistance to protect its constitutionally protected property rights,' claiming that deputies were overheard on two separate occasions saying that the sheriff was 'proud of not issuing any citations for trespassing on the property.' 'Vitriol' against BLB 'has recently escalated,' the lawsuit says, claiming that a trespasser damaged a table on his property 'after being warned by a BLB employee.' Littrell claimed that a deputy had come to the property, but hadn't taken any action against the alleged trespasser, and 'body camera footage shows multiple instances of disrespect against BLB's agents by the responding officer.' Claiming the sheriff's department continues to 'shirk its duty,' the lawsuit added, 'These are unprecedented times, if the Sheriff continues to refuse to protect and uphold the rights of BLB and other community members, private property and other rights held by Florida citizens will only exist on paper.' The Walton County Sheriff's Office told Fox News Digital the department doesn't 'comment on pending litigation,' adding it 'prides itself on handling every situation, call for service, or interaction with professionalism using a customer service approach. 'This has always been our philosophy and will continue to be moving forward.' Littrell told Fox News Digital in a statement: 'We bought a home here on this private beach on the Gulf of America in order to be able to vacation in quiet, to be able to enjoy our time without any attention or drama. 'Unfortunately, we had no idea that there was already a battle which had been happening for years.' He said that since buying the home, 'we have been targeted by people that don't normally frequent this beach or live in the area. 'These people, the ones who insist on trespassing in what is actually our backyard, who started this fight have to pass several scarcely populated public beach areas to get to our property.' Littrell claimed that the alleged trespassers are 'people who believe that anyone who has succeeded and managed to live the American Dream must be bad people. 'They want it so no one owns anything, and everyone is happy, except it never works out that way.' He added, 'The really scary thing is we have provided to law enforcement all the things they asked of all the private beach homeowners to enforce the law and they will not bother to do their duty to protect the homeowners. 'They will not do the job they were hired to do when hired and sworn in under oath to … protect the citizens and enforce the law.' He claimed the sheriff's department has 'come against us and will not do their jobs. They allow people to harass and stalk us and the security people,' they hired, adding, 'They are MAD that we bought a home on a private beach.'
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Backstreet Boys' Brian Littrell sues Florida sheriff for refusing to remove trespassers from his private beach
Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell has filed a lawsuit against a Florida county, accusing the sheriff's department of refusing to keep trespassers off of his private beach. Littrell said that to protect the "peaceful enjoyment" of his property in Walton County, Florida, on the Gulf Coast, his limited liability company, BLB Beach Hut LLC, has put up "no trespassing" signs as well as tables, chairs and umbrellas showing where the property line starts on the beach, according to the lawsuit obtained by Fox News Digital and filed in a Florida court recently. He wrote that the efforts have been "in vain, as numerous trespassers have set out to antagonize, bully and harass the Littrell family by regularly, every day, trespassing on BLB's beach, on the Subject Property, in open defiance of the law." The lawsuit seeks a writ of mandamus to require the sheriff's department to keep the alleged trespassers off of his beach. Littrell wrote in the lawsuit that he has been forced to hire security to protect his land and family, and filled out a Walton County Trespass Authorization Form, authorizing the sheriff's department to warn and prosecute trespassers on his property. "Despite BLB's numerous requests and the execution of the required forms, the sheriff has refused to come to the Subject Property to enforce the law and remove the trespassers, to charge the trespassers, or to take any action, at all, thereby refusing to do their duty," the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit says that on May 4, a sheriff's deputy spoke to an alleged trespasser on Littrell's property, but didn't remove the trespasser or cite them, merely saying that the alleged trespasser "'doesn't agree with private beaches,' going on to characterize BLB's insistence that it's constitutional rights be upheld as 'lunacy,' to use one of the words used by a deputy of the Sheriff's Department." The lawsuit also claims that on June 5, an alleged trespasser grabbed legal documents related to the dispute out of the property manager's hand "and scattered the papers into the wind across the beach." Littrel said BLB also contacted the sheriff's department twice that day regarding the "aggressor," but the department "refused to send any officer." "When BLB personnel contacted the Sheriff for the third time to request an officer again, the 911 operator simply hung up on BLB personnel rather than dispatching the officer that was requested more than an hour prior," the lawsuit states. He claimed that the sheriff's department is now "openly defying BLB's requests for assistance to protect its constitutionally protected property rights," claiming that deputies were overheard on two separate occasions saying that the sheriff was "proud of not issuing any citations for trespassing on the property." "Vitriol" against BLB "has recently escalated," the lawsuit says, claiming that a trespasser damaged a table on his property "after being warned by a BLB employee." Littrell claimed that a deputy had come to the property, but hadn't taken any action against the alleged trespasser, and "body camera footage shows multiple instances of disrespect against BLB's agents by the responding officer." "We bought a home here on this private beach on the Gulf of America in order to be able to vacation in quiet, to be able to enjoy our time without any attention or drama." Claiming the sheriff's department continues to "shirk its duty," the lawsuit added, "These are unprecedented times, if the Sheriff continues to refuse to protect and uphold the rights of BLB and other community members, private property and other rights held by Florida citizens will only exist on paper." The Walton County Sheriff's Office told Fox News Digital the department doesn't "comment on pending litigation," adding it "prides itself on handling every situation, call for service, or interaction with professionalism using a customer service approach. This has always been our philosophy and will continue to be moving forward." Littrell told Fox News Digital in a statement: "We bought a home here on this private beach on the Gulf of America in order to be able to vacation in quiet, to be able to enjoy our time without any attention or drama. Unfortunately, we had no idea that there was already a battle which had been happening for years." He said that since buying the home, "we have been targeted by people that don't normally frequent this beach or live in the area. These people, the ones who insist on trespassing in what is actually our backyard, who started this fight have to pass several scarcely populated public beach areas to get to our property." Littrell claimed that the alleged trespassers are "people who believe that anyone who has succeeded and managed to live the American Dream must be bad people. They want it so no one owns anything, and everyone is happy, except it never works out that way." He added, "The really scary thing is we have provided to law enforcement all the things they asked of all the private beach homeowners to enforce the law and they will not bother to do their duty to protect the homeowners. They will not do the job they were hired to do when hired and sworn in under oath to … protect the citizens and enforce the law."' He claimed the sheriff's department has "come against us and will not do their jobs. They allow people to harass and stalk us and the security people," they hired, adding, "They are MAD that we bought a home on a private beach."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Landowner ‘forced' to shut down public access to shortcut from Ewa to Kapolei
HONOLULU (KHON2) — A short stretch of road in Ewa Beach serves as a key artery for those going from Ewa Villages to Kapolei. But the road is actually private, and the landowner says it's being forced to close access to the public. Nanakuli residents want more access to emergency road Philippine Sea Street is a small road in Ewa, only about 500 feet long, but it has a big impact for those in West Oʻahu. 'Oh lot of people,' said Dennis Brock, Ewa resident. 'Initially when it was here about 30 years ago, there was not that much usage. But since all the construction and the housing, this access road, I mean, lot of people use it, it's just like a shortcut.' But after complaints from some drivers about the condition of the road, it's scheduled to be shut down August 15. 'We had people coming up to us and saying, if you not keep up, my car's gonna get damaged and so we ended up having to rethink what we're gonna do with the road,' said Ross Stephenson, Hawaiʻi Railway Society Board of Directors. The road's landowner is the Hawaiʻi Railway Society. They are planning to close the gate on the Roosevelt Avenue end.'We've got so much traffic going through here now you can see the neighbors put up jersey barriers over here to keep their kids safe,' said Stephenson. 'We've had lots of accidents, even across the street, through the stop sign, people been driving through there.' HRS says the breaking point was a few months ago when the city told them it wasn't going to maintain the road anymore, even though the public, even city buses, use it. So HRS paid $7,000 for repatching some areas. Despite what the Hawaiʻi Railway Society maintains, the city says it has no records of its crews doing any kind of maintenance on this road. The city also says the society has not initiated any kind of talks for any kind of sale or transfer. When closed, commuters between Ewa Villages and Kapolei will now have to go the long way around, either via Kapolei Parkway or Roosevelt Avenue. 'It's important for me,' said Brock. 'Cuts down like half an hour.' 'To be honest, we should be thankful that this is open,' said Jack Aris, Ewa resident. 'Potholes is nothing new. But I'd rather choose the pothole than congestion to be honest.' Check out more news from around Hawaii 'If we create any inconvenience to the public, we apologize,' said Stephenson. 'But we have our own focus. We don't have the money to keep this up, and so we don't have any choice.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- The Guardian
Why Jamaicans can't access their own beaches
If Jamaica is synonymous with sun, sea and freedom to some, they might be surprised to hear that is not necessarily the case for Jamaicans as only 1% of the country's beaches are open to the public. The rest are walled off by resorts, protected by private security and locked behind a colonial law that is somehow still in force. Neelam Tailor digs into how Jamaica's paradise became private property – and speaks with the local movement fighting to take it back
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
Why Jamaicans can't access their own beaches
If Jamaica is synonymous with sun, sea and freedom to some, they might be surprised to hear that is not necessarily the case for Jamaicans as only 1% of the country's beaches are open to the public. The rest are walled off by resorts, protected by private security and locked behind a colonial law that is somehow still in force. Neelam Tailor digs into how Jamaica's paradise became private property – and speaks with the local movement fighting to take it back
