Opat v. Ludeking

• Decision Date: 16 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-0657.,02-0657.
• Citation: 666 N.W.2d 597
• Parties: Stacy L. OPAT, Appellee, v. Cheryl LUDEKING, Appellant. Cheryl Ludeking, Plaintiff, v. Iowa District Court for Winneshiek County, Defendant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

666 N.W.2d 597

Stacy L. OPAT, Appellee, v. Cheryl LUDEKING, Appellant.

Cheryl Ludeking, Plaintiff, v. Iowa District Court for Winneshiek County, Defendant.

No. 02-0657.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

July 16, 2003.

Richard D. Zahasky, Decorah, for appellant.

Dale L. Putnam, Decorah, for appellee.

TERNUS, Justice.

In this action for injunctive relief, the trial court found that the defendant, Cheryl Ludeking, has gone "out of her way to have contact with [the plaintiff, Stacy Opat,] to induce a state of anxiety," all in retaliation for Opat's high school rejection of Ludeking's friendship nearly twenty years ago. The court issued a permanent injunction restricting Ludeking's physical proximity to and interaction with Opat and members of her family. The court also held Ludeking in contempt for violating a prior temporary injunction issued by the court.

Ludeking appeals the court's order granting a permanent injunction and also challenges the court's contempt finding through a petition for writ of certiorari. Based on our de novo review, we affirm the court's grant of injunctive relief. In addition, we think the court's contempt finding is supported by substantial evidence and so we annul the writ of certiorari.

I. Background Facts.

Because we concur in the trial court's factual findings after having undertaken a de novo review of the record, we borrow heavily from the trial court's order in setting forth the pertinent facts underlying the present appeal. In 1984-1985, Opat and Ludeking were friends for a few months during their freshman year in high school. Their friendship broke up, however, after Opat refused to write a nasty letter to a classmate with whom Ludeking had a dispute. Ludeking resented Opat's rejection and throughout the remainder of their time in high school harassed Opat, spreading rumors about her and calling her a bitch, slut, whore, and liar in the presence of others. Ludeking's actions caused Opat immense distress. Ludeking, in turn, derived great pleasure from her success in causing Opat emotional anguish.

In the fall of 1990, Ludeking persuaded another girl to follow Opat while Opat was shopping. Opat noticed that she was being followed and later that day saw the girl talking to Ludeking. Several months later Opat talked to the girl at a party and found out that Ludeking had asked the girl to follow Opat and report Opat's activities to Ludeking. When asked why, the girl explained that Ludeking hated Opat. In the same general time period, Ludeking or others acting at her request, rearranged letters on a sign at a business owned by Opat's parents to read "Stacy is a slut."

Ludeking, who has a bold and assertive personality, could see that she was having a detrimental effect on Opat, who is quiet and reserved. Nonetheless, Ludeking continued to ridicule Opat when the opportunity presented itself.

Over the years Opat had sought help from her parents and school officials who told her she needed to toughen up and things would eventually get better. But by July 1991, Opat felt she had no way of stopping Ludeking. Opat required treatment for depression and attempted suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ludeking took advantage of this unfortunate occurrence to further torment Opat. About a month after Opat's suicide attempt Ludeking saw Opat on the street. In the presence of several other people, Ludeking yelled, "Did you hear Stacy Fjelstul [Opat's maiden name] tried to kill herself? Too bad she didn't succeed." Opat made no response.

Later in September 1991, Ludeking arranged for the delivery of a "gift" to Opat around the time of Opat's twenty-first birthday. One of Ludeking's cohorts put a package prepared by Ludeking under Opat's car, which was parked at Opat's place of employment. When Opat and a co-worker observed the package during a break, Opat asked her friend to open it. Although the package appeared to be a flower box with pretty wrapping on it, Opat was concerned Ludeking might be involved due to the odd method of delivery. Opat's friend was shocked upon opening the package. Ludeking's "gift" consisted of a Barbie doll with its head cut off, a razor blade stuck in its chest, and ketchup smeared around to represent blood. A note in the package said, "Try again."

Opat pursued criminal charges against Ludeking. While a charge of harassment was pending, Ludeking contacted a local priest to convey to Opat that Ludeking was seeking Opat's forgiveness. Ludeking did so in the hope that Opat would have the criminal charge dropped. Opat rejected Ludeking's request for forgiveness after she learned that Ludeking had not been forthright with the priest as to the acts for which Ludeking wanted to be forgiven. Later, Ludeking entered an Alford plea to a charge of aiding and abetting harassment.

In 1993, Ludeking and Opat sought the same secretarial position with the Winneshiek County office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Opat got the job. In 1997 a similar position opened in the NRCS office in Allamakee County. Opat received a call from Ludeking, posing as "Pam Bolson," inquiring about the position. Opat was not able to answer all of "Pam's" questions and so Opat referred her to the Allamakee County office. "Pam" was persistent, however, in trying to get answers to her questions, to the point of being offensive. This contact by Ludeking was aimed at provoking Opat so Ludeking could report Opat's rudeness to Opat's supervisor. (In fact, Ludeking later called the Allamakee County office to complain that she had received rude treatment from Opat.)

Concerned that Ludeking was trying to interfere with Opat's employment, Opat called her supervisor in Des Moines. Although Opat had not previously informed her boss of her difficulties with Ludeking, she began to describe the situation to him. He interrupted her to ask if the other person involved was Cheryl Ludeking. Her supervisor was aware of Ludeking because Ludeking had applied for the Allamakee County position, but had not received an interview. Ludeking attributed her lack of success to Opat and had complained about Opat to Opat's supervisor and others in the Des Moines office. In reality, Opat had had no input in the decision whether to interview Ludeking. In the summer of 2000, Opat and her husband decided to send their children to a parochial school associated with St. Benedict's Catholic Church in Decorah. After verifying that Ludeking and her family were not members, the Opats joined the parish. Within a few months, Ludeking and her husband joined St. Benedict's even though they had had no strong ties to the church previously. When the Opats saw the Ludekings at the 11:00 a.m. mass on several Sundays in a row, the Opats began to go to the 9:00 a.m. mass in order to avoid the Ludekings. After the Opats changed the service they attended, however, the Ludekings also began to attend the 9:00 a.m. mass.

In May 2001 Ludeking came to Opat's office under the pretext of asking for directions to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) office in the same building. Opat gave Ludeking the directions Ludeking requested, but Opat was visibly upset by the encounter. Because Opat had seen Ludeking in the DNR office a week earlier, Opat doubted that a need for directions was Ludeking's true purpose in approaching Opat. Opat took Ludeking's actions as a threat. Shaken, she retreated to the break room for twenty minutes to wait for Ludeking to leave the building. When Opat returned to her desk, Ludeking was standing at the counter. Ludeking then walked through a swinging gate toward Opat's desk behind the counter, asking several questions about pictures of Opat's children that were on Opat's desk. Ludeking asked Opat to hand her the pictures, but Opat refused and returned to the break room. At this point, Opat was crying, shaking, and sobbing because she interpreted Ludeking's actions as a threat against her children.

Although Ludeking later claimed that she and her husband were conducting business in the NRCS office that day, the technician with whom the Ludekings worked refuted her testimony. He recalled waiting on another customer while Ludeking was in the office and testified that Ludeking did not ask for any service that day.

In addition to these specific events, Ludeking had the practice of following Opat around whenever they happened to be in the same store. This conduct occurred several times over the years.

Following Ludeking's visit to Opat's workplace, Opat again required mental health counseling. Her counselor, Charles Dopke, testified at trial that Opat was suffering from severe depression when he first saw her in May 2001. He explained her reaction to the office encounter with Ludeking as similar to a posttraumatic stress disorder arising from the doll incident years earlier. According to Dopke, Opat sees the beheaded doll incident as symbolic of Ludeking's intentions toward her. Opat views Ludeking as a clear threat and danger. When Ludeking asked to see the picture of Opat's children, Opat attributed the same intentions toward her children. Dopke testified that Opat's response to Ludeking's actions was not abnormal considering the traumatic event involving the beheaded doll.

At trial Ludeking denied any vendetta against Opat. Ludeking's response to Opat's testimony and that of Opat's witnesses was twofold: (1) Opat and the witnesses were lying; and (2) the contact between Opat and Ludeking that did occur was minimal and coincidental.

II. Issuance of Temporary Injunction.

On May 29, 2001, Opat filed the present action seeking temporary and permanent injunctions against Ludeking. Her attorney obtained an ex parte temporary injunction prohibiting Ludeking from coming within 500 feet of Opat or Opat's family members. In obtaining this injunction, Opat's attorney failed to certify "either the efforts which [had] been made to give notice to the adverse party or that party's attorney or the reason supporting...