Webb v. Schlagal
| Decision Date | 31 August 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. 11-14-00101-CV,11-14-00101-CV |
| Citation | 530 S.W.3d 793 |
| Parties | Buddy Wayne WEBB, Appellant v. Lori Beth SCHLAGAL, Appellee |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Laura Nodolf, District Attorney, Eric Kalenak, Assistant, for Appellee.
Lane Haygood, Odessa, Ashlie Thomas Vieira, C. Luke Gunnstaks, Plano, for Appellant.
Panel consists of: Wright, C.J., Willson, J., and Bailey, J.
Buddy Wayne Webb appeals the trial court's lifetime protective order that enjoined him from any contact or communication with his ex-wife, Lori Beth Schlagal, and her minor daughter. The Midland County district attorney alleged in the application for a protective order that Webb had engaged in a course of conduct that constituted stalking, as defined by Section 42.072 of the Texas Penal Code.1 Webb asserts five issues on appeal. We affirm.
Schlagal and Webb, after a brief courtship, married in September 2011. The two separated three months later and divorced in March 2012. Although Webb was the petitioner in the divorce case, Schlagal testified that she separated from him because she "felt [her] life was in jeopardy." Schlagal said that Webb was "very delusional, and he believed that I was a part of a conspiracy against him."
Schlagal claimed that, during their marriage, Webb routinely locked the two of them in a room and interrogated her. On one occasion in December 2011, Webb locked himself and Schlagal in a room and asked her "who the pimps, the tricks and the drug dealers were that were breaking into his home." Webb believed that a "prostitution ring" operated in and around his house. Webb had a theory that "possibly there's a tunnel that comes under my house that goes up through these pathways that" lead into the attic. Webb testified that the tunnel and pathways provided a transportation system for the "prostitution ring." Webb questioned Schlagal about her involvement in the prostitution ring.
Webb claimed that his do-it-yourself, home-security system, which included Home Depot motion detectors, Samsung cameras, and a Vivint security system, alerted him to the presence of intruders. He believed that intruders gained access to his home through tunnels, pathways, or a basement. Webb conceded that his house had no basement. He also acknowledged that people could not go through four-inch walls to get to the attic, but nonetheless, he believed that the tunnels provided pathways to the attic.
On another occasion during their marriage, Schlagal called the police after Webb came home screaming and asking her where his gun was. The police reported to the scene and placed Webb in their police car, but they released him after he agreed to leave the premises. When asked if Webb had threatened to kill or hurt her on this occasion, Schlagal acknowledged that "[a]t the time [Webb] didn't make a direct threat to me, no." Webb also thought Schlagal was having an affair with a sex doctor in Dallas after he had gone through her phone and phone records. Webb continued to accuse her of being part of a prostitution ring and said that her breath smelled like "semen." At the end of December 2011, Schlagal and Webb separated.
In January 2012, Webb suffered a gunshot wound
to his right ankle while in his home. Webb was hospitalized for the gunshot wound, which he initially said was an accidental shooting. Webb admitted that he kept weapons and a small amount of tear gas in the house. Later, when Detective Rosie Rodriguez of the Midland Police Department spoke to Webb in the hospital, Webb claimed that two neighborhood children had gained entry to his house through tunnels underneath his home and shot him. Webb provided Detective Rodriguez with a hand-drawn map of the tunnel and other pathways, which the State subsequently introduced into evidence. Detective Rodriguez started an investigation and went to Webb's home. She found a 12-gauge shotgun connected to a "tripwire that went across from one wall—from the south wall to the north wall" of a small hallway. After the police had used a robot to clear Webb's house of any dangers, they removed his weapons from his home, including the 12-gauge shotgun and two pistols. Detective Rodriguez characterized Webb's injury as "self-inflicted" and described him as "delusional."
Webb testified that Schlagal corroborated this testimony from Webb. However, Schlagal explained that, after she left Webb, he continued to try to locate her through Facebook friends and by e-mailing her and others. He also threatened her family.
.
At some point, Webb decided that Schlagal was somehow responsible for his gunshot wound
. Webb claimed that Schlagal had a relative who was a doctor who treated him for his gunshot wound and that the doctor lied when he reported that he removed shotgun wadding from the wound because Webb said he was not shot with a shotgun. Arthur Welch, Schlagal's ex-boyfriend from after the divorce, contacted Webb via private Facebook message in October 2012. Welch alleged that Schlagal had tried to have Welch killed and asked if she may have had a part in Webb being shot. Webb introduced a copy of the conversation into evidence. It read as follows:
This conversation with Welch prompted Webb to send two e-mails directly to Schlagal. The first e-mail, sent in November 2012, read as follows:2
In October 2013, Webb sent Schlagal a second e-mail. The State presented this e-mail as another instance of Webb's stalking. Webb asked Schlagal in the e-mail, "What was your part in the break-ins of my house, the death of my mom3 and the murder attempt on my life?" Webb's e-mails made Schlagal feel harassed, tormented, embarrassed, and offended, and she also feared for her life. At some point between Webb's November 2012 and October 2013 e-mails, Schlagal, acting on the advice of Detective Rodriguez, sent Webb an e-mail that demanded he cease all contact with her. Webb denied that he ever received that e-mail.
Schlagal testified that Webb had sent numerous e-mails to people and had hundreds of Facebook postings that accused her of being part of a prostitution ring, which he said was her "family" business; being involved in the break-ins in his house; being involved in his mother's death; and being part of a conspiracy to murder him. Webb acknowledged that he sent her e-mails and made Facebook postings about her and that he deleted posts, but he denied that he stalked her.
Robin Gonzalez reported to Schlagal's stepmother that Webb had posted on Facebook that he was going to kill Schlagal. Schlagal testified that Webb continued to search for her, e-mail people about her, put hundreds of posts about her on Facebook, and accuse and threaten her family. Webb sent Schlagal an e-mail insinuating that she was involved in a murder attempt on him and stating that she should contact the FBI. Schlagal reported to police that Webb would not leave her alone, and Detective Rodriguez explained that Schlagal feared for her life. Schlagal wanted the trial court "to enter a two-year protective order based upon stalking."
Webb admitted that he had called the police, Texas Rangers, FBI, and attorney general and reported that his gunshot injury was a murder attempt on his life. He also admitted that he had sent several e-mails to police about the murder attempt. In his words, "[Schlagal] would be the most obvious suspect." Webb persisted in what the police and Schlagal both described as "delusional" behavior. After a hearing where both parties testified and presented evidence, the trial court granted Schlagal's application for a protective order.
Webb asserts in the first of five issues that the trial court erred when it failed to file additional findings of fact and conclusions of law. Second, he argues that the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support the protective order. Third, he claims that the issuance of the lifetime protective order is unconstitutional as applied to him because the e-mails that he sent Schlagal constituted protected speech under the First Amendment. Fourth, Webb argues that the trial court's protective order against him unlawfully infringed on his constitutional right to bear arms. Finally, Webb argues that the trial court...
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