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The Destin Log - By Fraser Sherman - June 24, 2007
Destin beachfront resident Kathy Wright says allowing the public to walk across private beaches allows “violent men” to threaten her family.
Wright and her husband, Mike, are now fighting in court to ban
Jeffrey Reed and Bill Leech — whom the Wrights say have trespassed on their property and intimidated their children —
from coming near their Gulf-front Destiny Shores
home, claiming the two men trespassed on the Wright’s property and threatened their children.
Reed and Leech claim the Wrights are lying.
This week, Kathy Wright told Destin’s City Council that the two men had been on the brink of settling the court case until the city filed a brief in the case asserting the right of the public to walk and fish on private beaches up to 20 feet upland of the wet sand area.
“You gave these guys courage and confidence to go back to my property,” Wright told the council. “If you don’t understand fear when your girls are in jeopardy, you don’t understand love.”
In an interview, Reed’s attorney, Glenn Swiatek, said Wright was wrong: Reed would never have accepted settlement terms that included staying 500 feet away from the entire Destiny Shores subdivision, even when out on the water.
About the only thing that isn’t in dispute is that everything began on April 21 when Reed and Leech set up
fishing poles behind the Wright’s house. Kathy Wright contacted an Okaloosa County sheriff’s deputy, who told the men that while they could walk across private beachfront, they couldn’t stop there.
The men subsequently contacted the sheriff’s office, which confirmed that the city does allow beachgoers to walk, sit or fish up to 20 feet upland of the wet sand. The men resumed fishing.
According to the Wrights, the men also threatened and harassed Kathy Wright and her children, and later returned and did so again. Swiatek, the attorney, said Reed and Leech never even saw the Wright’s children. In an e-mail on file at City Hall, Reed said Kathy Wright falsely claimed Reed had spent eight hours on the beach at the Wright property May 16 when his work records would prove he’d been on his job until 3 p.m.
Since then, the Wrights have filed suit against the two men, and have received an initial restraining order against them. Kathy Wright told the City Council this week that the restraining order proves the suit has merit. Swiatek said issuing one in a case like this is routine, regardless of the merits.
On Monday, the Wrights told the City Council that the city had interfered with the case by filing its brief on the 20-foot rule.
“I was shocked and dismayed the city turned the safety of my family into a political issue,” Mike Wright said, “to make a point about beach restoration. (You’re) opposing my wife’s efforts to protect my family.”
Wright said the city had been seduced into favoring tourists over residents, and that the issue was trespassing, not the 20-foot zone.
City Manager Greg Kisela said the Wright’s attorney had contacted the city with questions about the 20-foot rule, and the city had filed the brief to make the policy clear to the judge. Kisela said the brief hadn’t touched on the Wright’s allegations.
Councilor Dewey Destin said that even though the council would probably have supported
filing the brief, Kisela should have obtained council approval before going ahead. The council voted unanimously that city attorneys should check with the council before making most court filings.
Councilor Cyron Marler asked if the Wrights were participants in a current lawsuit by beachfront owners opposed to the controversial beach restoration project under way in east Destin. Wright said he was not involved, but county court records list both Wrights as plaintiffs in the case as recently as May 7.
Mike Wright told the City Council that the merits of the 20-foot rule were irrelevant, since the court case “is about bullying, it’s about harassment.”
In a letter to Mayor Craig Barker about the case last month, however, Kathy Wright said the city should abandon the 20-foot rule to protect her children.
“Authority has been given for violent and or sexual predators to sit within 50 feet of my children,” Wright wrote. “If that rule is put in place, criminals will be able to sit on my back porch.”
Destin resident Bob Biel, a frequent critic of the lack of beach access in Destin, has also become involved, writing to City Hall in support of Leech and Reed and their right to use the beaches behind Destiny Shores.
The Wrights did not return The Log’s calls seeking comment for this article.
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