Defendant's Attorney:

Description:

Tampa, Florida personal injury lawyer represented woman seeking a permanent injunction against Defendant to stop stalking.

After Manville broke up with Klein following a ten-month romantic relationship, he stalked her for nearly a year using various methods. Many of Klein's tactics involved the use of various websites and social media applications. He began by registering a website using an acronym that the parties had used for their relationship while dating. The acronym referenced personal matters, and we need not describe it here. Suffice it to say, Klein acknowledged nobody in Naples other than Manville would be interested in visiting this website. Indeed, Klein monitored the website's visitor traffic to see if Manville visited the site; he would then contact her after she viewed it. He also knew that she was regularly searching for her name on the internet to see what he had done next.

On the first acronym website, Klein posted pictures of, and communications between, him and Manville. These included pictures of her in her bathing suit. He identified her using her full name and nickname. He thereafter created Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit accounts using the acronym. He would tag and name Manville in these accounts, and he created hashtags featuring her full name. For example, Klein created several Reddit accounts using the acronym and posted multiple times about "relationship abuse by Alayna Manville." He also wrote her letters in which he referenced the parties’ intimate experiences, begged her to work things out, and insisted that he still loved her.

In the midst of this campaign—and after Manville had filed her first stalking petition for an injunction against Klein—Manville told Klein she was suicidal, and she asked him why he would keep posting about her so long after their breakup. The parties later entered into a mutual agreement in Klein's pending Illinois divorce case. Manville agreed to dismiss her stalking petition, and Klein agreed not to disparage her.

Despite this agreement, Klein registered three more domain names using the acronym. He posted their photos, their past communications, thoughts about their relationship, and ironically, a copy of their mutual agreement. Over the next few months, he created YouTube, BlogSpot, and Facebook accounts using the acronym. Another Facebook account was called "Alayna Manville & Adam Klein Love Story." He also created dating profiles using the acronym and Manville's photos. He continued posting on Instagram and Twitter, both to and about Manville and their relationship. He emailed and mailed her on multiple occasions, one time proposing the cooperative creation of a "relationship website."

A month before Manville filed her second stalking petition, she started a new business under her nickname. After she filed an application for a service mark for her business, Klein informed her via letter that he had already service marked her nickname and registered a website under it. He had also secured her full name as a website domain. Klein congratulated Manville on her new business and suggested she "propose an agreement" to use her name in connection with it. He said that if she did not respond, he would contest her application, and "that will put us for a long time of litigation and cost." His service mark application identified the purpose of the nickname's business as "Sex toys, namely Jewelry." Klein acknowledged that he had never sold jewelry, and Manville is also not a jeweler. Klein also applied for registration of fictitious name for Manville's nickname with the Florida Department of State. He later created an Instagram account using Manville's name, which linked to both the nickname's and the full name's websites, and where he identified Manville by her full name.

A week before Manville filed her stalking petition, Klein posted multiple messages on the Twitter acronym account directing Manville to meet him for dinner. He posted about the relationship on Twitter and Instagram, again identifying Manville by her full name.

Manville engaged in therapy sessions throughout Klein's yearlong campaign. She felt terrorized by Klein and stated that the experience had been "debilitating" and "devastating." She testified that she had to seek medical treatment, and she feared for her physical safety. Klein testified that he did not understand why Manville had broken up with him, that he wanted "closure" in the relationship, and that he felt like she was harassing him.

Following a three-day evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted Manville's stalking petition. It delivered an extensive and detailed explanation for its ruling, in which it found that this "was exactly the type of case and the type of behavior that the stalking statute was designed to prohibit." The trial court found Manville's testimony entirely credible, and Klein's testimony almost entirely incredible. It also found that Manville was "clearly and understandably distressed by [Klein's] actions." In a separate hearing, the trial court ordered Klein to complete BIP.
Klein v. Manville, 363 So.3d 1163 (Fla. App. 2023)

Outcome: Affirmed

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