- October 13, 2024
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For the first time in Flagler County, the Sheriff’s Office has used a civil law to permanently order nuisance residents from their home.
The five residents of the home, located in the 2300 block of Blueberry Street in Daytona North, each have a history with law enforcement — various felony and misdemeanor charges, including drug charges, according to a press release from the FCSO.
Since the current owner took possession of the home in March 2018, the FCSO has made 132 service calls to the residence, the press release said.
The injunction order gave the residents seven days to vacate the premises after a judge signed the injunction on Jan. 9.
They complied, and Sheriff Rick Staly and deputies erected a sign on the property saying the residents are prohibited from returning.
“The conduct of these poison peddlers directly and negatively impacted the other residents of Blueberry Street, Daytona North and Flagler County as a whole,” Staly said, according to the news release. “Nearby residents have been the victims of criminal activity, harassment and threats from residents and visitors at the property for long enough.”
Florida law states that because the home is homesteaded, the FCSO can not legally seize it except in the context of a civil forfeiture case, Staly said.
So the FCSO worked with the agency’s legal team to file a civil nuisance abatement case.
“When it became obvious their behavior would not change despite numerous arrests, I directed our general counsel to try a new tactic, which had never been used before in Flagler County, by using a civil nuisance abatement court action,” Staly said.
Nuisance abatement is a civil tactic allowing a citizen, attorney or sheriff to put a homeowner and residents on notice that they are violating local law.
In court documents for the case, the FCSO cited the continuing criminal activity on the property and frequent service calls for law enforcement as “activities ... which would tend to annoy (and actually have annoyed) the community.”
The party filing the abatement order is required to send the homeowner two notices and allow plenty of time to comply before a permanent injunction is served.
The Sheriff’s Office served the first notice in April 2022 and the second in May, the press release said, but the residents “continued their illegal activities with no signs of stopping.”
“This was a long legal process, but we built the case and prevailed,” Staly said.
The homeowner and one of the residents are at the county jail for violation of pretrial release and violation of probation charges, respectively.
