George Fishler flipped off his neighbor for years, and put up yard signs bashing her teen-treatment business next door.
He believed this was within his right to free speech — a way to protest after Eva Carlston Academy set up shop inside a home on their narrow street in the foothills of Mount Olympus.
But a state judge recently ruled that Fishler’s actions crossed the line to stalking, siding with facility owner Kristi Ragsdale, who sought a stalking injunction against Fishler six years ago.
Third District Judge Amber Mettler issued her ruling last month, finding that Fishler’s actions targeted Ragsdale and would cause a “reasonable person” to fear for their safety.
The judge noted in her ruling that Ragsdale and every Eva Carlston Academy employee who testified at a May hearing became emotional when recalling their interactions with Fishler.
Ragsdale testified that Fishler shows her and other staff his middle finger as they drive by, and hurls derogatory words towards the staff and girls who live there.
“I’m afraid for my safety,” she testified. “I’m afraid for the safety of my co-workers. I’m afraid for the safety of the kids that are in my care. He calls them little b-----s and little whores.”
Fishler testified in May that his actions were protesting the business, which he said “ruined my neighborhood” because of increased traffic and noise. He plans to appeal the ruling.
“I will always defend my right of free speech,” he said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Stalking injunction granted
This case dragged on in Utah’s court system for years after a judge in 2017 ruled that Ragsdale had not proven that her neighbor’s behavior met the legal definition of stalking, and she appealed. The Utah Supreme Court reversed the decision, and ordered for it to be considered again by another judge.
Karthik Nadesan, Fishler’s attorney, said they’ll now appeal Mettler’s ruling. Fishler plans to comply with the judge’s order while the appeal is pending.
“When I started my protest against Eva Carlston Academy (ECA), their principals sent me letters stating that my protest was harming their profits and that they would take me to court to stop me,” Fishler said in a statement. “ECA has used the Utah Civil Stalking Statute as their vehicle to do this.”
“For the past five years,” the statement continued, “ECA has dragged me through the courts under the assumption that I would not bear the emotional and financial costs that I have paid to defend my First Amendment right of free speech.”
Ragsdale’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Fishler has been ordered not to “follow, threaten, annoy, harass or cause distress” to Ragsdale, according to the stalking injunction. He also is prohibited from communicating with or gesturing toward others as they enter or exit Eva Carlston Academy.
The judge did not issue a “stay away order” as requested by Ragsdale, writing that it would be “practically unenforceable” for her to order that Fishler not deliberately pass the facility because he lives next door.
Fishler, however, will be allowed to keep his yard signs posted. For the last decade, such signs have read “DELIVER US FROM EVA” and “TROUBLED TEEN MONEY MACHINE. BECOME DISABLED FOR ONLY $10,000/MONTH.”
Ragsdale had requested that they be removed, but the judge declined to order that, saying it would violate his rights to free speech. The wire-legged, bold print signs were still in Fishler’s yard as of Friday, when a reporter drove by his home.
‘Unhinged’ behavior?
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Signs in a neighborhood near Eva Carlston Academy, a youth treatment center for girls located in a home in a Salt Lake City suburb, on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.
The signs have been a fixture in front of Fishler’s property for nearly a decade, since Eva Carlston Academy opened the 16-bed location in the Mount Olympus neighborhood in 2013.
Mettler found that Fishler’s sustained effort over nearly 10 years to yell at Eva Carlston employees and keep his signs posted was “particularly fear-inducing given that it demonstrates obsessive and unreasonable behavior on [Fishler’s] part.”
Fishler has never physically hurt anyone at Eva Carlston Academy, the judge wrote in her ruling, but that did not mitigate her safety concerns.
“To the contrary, most reasonable people would view [Fishler’s] conduct as nearly, if not entirely, unhinged and could quite reasonably conclude that it is unpredictable what [Fishler] is capable of doing.”
Fishler said he felt Mettler’s decision takes a fundamental right from him.
“It is also very unsettling,” he said, “that the court would declare me to be ‘unhinged’ because of my determination to exercise and defend my rights.”
Fishler has insisted that he is not directing his signs or gestures at Ragsdale personally — but is only protesting her business.
Ragsdale testified in May that Fishler’s behavior has affected her business, where parents pay $12,900 a month for their daughters to attend, and has caused them to take more safety precautions.
“Neither my students nor my coworkers can peacefully go to our home and just exist,” she testified. “We can’t just peacefully drive by our neighborhood without getting accosted and stalked and humiliated by that man. It is so anxiety-provoking and it has gone on way too long.”
