pressed his trespassing suit <\/a>against beach-goer Carolyn Barrington Hill, in which he accuses the 67-year-old of coming on to the dry sand behind his $3.8 million beach house in the town of Santa Rosa to hang out and sunbathe without his permission.<\/p>\nLawyers for Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell and for the woman he\u2019s suing for allegedly trespassing on his beach, were in court Thursday. Facebook\/Shoreline Defender<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old crooner says Hill has traipsed onto the dry sand of his private beach repeatedly from April through September in violation of Sunshine State laws \u2014 which say that the public can only go on the beach up to the high tide line behind private homes. <\/p>\n
The music star\u2019s suit says the woman repeatedly refused to leave and even videotaped his family without their consent when they complained.<\/p>\n
Hill, 67, who described herself in legal papers as \u201csemi-retired\u201d and \u201con Medicare,\u201d fired back by filing a motion to dismiss Littrell\u2019s whole case \u2014 which Hill and Littrell\u2019s lawyers discussed during a video hearing in Walton County Court Thursday.<\/p>\n
The singer says Hill\u2019s presence on his property is part of an attempt by local beach-access activists to force open the area\u2019s sands and take away his private beach use. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this is really about is a political campaign against [the Littrells] run by certain individuals in the Walton County area,\u201d Littrell\u2019s lawyer, Brent Day, said. \u201cSome people believe they shouldn\u2019t be able to own certain pieces of property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy\u00a0clients have been wanting to enjoy the peaceful use of their beach,\u201d Day said. \u201cThey have been harassed by numerous organizations \u2026 day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill\u2019s lawyer, Heidi Mehaffey, said that she and her client wanted to ensure that the law allowing access to the \u201cwaterline\u201d is enforced and people get at least this level of use of the sands behind wealthy homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beaches in our great state below the mean high water line is sovereign land held by the state for the public trust of all people \u2014 all people, not just people who are wealthy,\u201d Mehaffey said.<\/p>\n
The Backstreet boys singer brought the claims alongside his wife Leighanne and their company BLB Beach Hut, LLC, under which they purchased their 1,574-square-foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom home in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Littrells did not attend the video hearing Thursday. Hill\u2019s lawyer said she was present but she was not visible on the screen.<\/p>\n
Littrell claims Carolyn Barrington Hill has repeatedly trespassed onto his beach at his $3.8 million Santa Rosa Beach home. Daniel DeSlover\/ZUMA Press \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n
Carolyn Barrington Hill wants Littrell\u2019s suit tossed. WMBB<\/p>\n
Mehaffey, accused Littrell of using the courts to \u201cdeter Ms. Hill and all beachgoers from exercising their fundamental\u00a0and constitutional right to enjoy the healing waters and dust free air of the beaches of Walton County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day claimed the Littrells have marked the end of their property on the beach by putting up private property signs and beach equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no mistake about where their property begins and ends,\u201d Day said. \u201cThe defendant takes issues with the delineation of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day said the Littrells \u201cdon\u2019t want people meandering about their backyard,\u201d and said ever since their clash with locals, they \u201cdon\u2019t feel safe in their own home.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mehaffey said there was no evidence that her client had crossed over that high water line and said the claims against Hill were too \u201cvague.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Florida, beach above the high water line can be privately owned. Google Street<\/p>\n
Littrell, seen here with fellow Backstree Boys members, bought the home in 2023. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plaintiffs are attempting to send the message that they will sue without cause to exhaust resources of beachgoers who stand up for their constitutional right to recreate and use water on these beaches,\u201d Mehaffey alleged. \u201cClearly, this is an attempt to harass and intimidate Ms. Hill and it cannot stand.\u201d<\/p>\n
After listening to roughly an\u00a0hour of oral arguments, Judge Jonathan Schlechter said he would rule at a later date.<\/p>\n
Littrell\u2019s suit claims he was \u201cforced to hire security\u201d to protect his family from pesky neighbors and even once had to call the Walton County Sheriff\u2019s Office to kick Hill off their property on May 4.<\/p>\n
Littrell also sued the Walton County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> in July, claiming it wasn\u2019t doing enough to protect the family from trespassers. There is a motion to dismiss by the law enforcement agency currently pending.<\/p>\nA video released in 2023 showed Leighanne insisting that a beachgoer, who set up a sunbathing spot on her property, needed to move to the \u201cwater\u2019s edge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cI Want It That Way Singer\u201d stood silently holding up a \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d sign while his wife and the man argued. The man said at one point he\u2019s \u201cnot f\u2013king moving\u201d and told them to call the cops.<\/p>\n
The dispute over the Littrell\u2019s beach land has also made a splash on the Instagram page Shoreline defender, with locals accusing the Littrell property manager of threatening them with a drill while he told people to leave the hotly contested shoreline spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He claims to be from the back streets \u2014 but these days he fighting for his tony backyard.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11151,6104,38253,1107,28,30,29,4137,4278],"class_list":["post-79809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-backstreet-boys","tag-beaches","tag-brian-littrell","tag-courts","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lawsuits","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}