He can’t have it that way.
Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell can’t claim a Florida retiree caused him emotional harm when she used the beach outside his $3.8 million mansion, said a judge who tossed his suit again her on Tuesday.
Littrell, 50, has been embroiled in a long-running spat with Carolyn Barrington Hill, 67, in which he claims she has repeatedly trespassed and invaded his privacy by going on the dry sand outside his beachfront property in Santa Rosa in the Florida Panhandle.
Hill says everybody has the right to rock their body on the public beach in front of Littrell’s house, thanks to Sunshine State access laws.
Walton County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Schlechter dismissed Littrell’s entire lawsuit against Carolyn Hill on Tuesday, saying that Littrell can’t claim emotional damages in a trespassing case.
Schletchter’s ruling was based on a legal technicality, giving Littrell 20 days to refile his complaint against Hill with the legal corrections.
The judge also said Littrell didn’t provide evidence that Hill was on a part of his property where he had a “a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Hill’s lawyer, Heidi Mehaffey, lauded the judge for seeing “through the legal insufficiencies in the complaint.”
“The Florida Constitution protects Ms. Hill’s access to the shorelines to enjoy her local beach that she has frequented for decades,” Mehaffey said. “Ms. Hill will continue to stand strong in her defense that all have rights to access the beaches of Walton County without fear of litigation.”
Meanwhile, Littrell’s lawyer, Peter Ticktin, downplayed the ruling as “standard stuff.”
“We’ll be filing an amended complaint in pursuant to the order of the court,” Ticktin said. “This is a normal procedure in the way complaints are processed and refined.”
The crooner brought the suit in September alongside his wife Leighanne and their company BLB Beach Hut, LLC, under which they bought their 1,574-square-foot, three-bedroom, four-bathroom home in 2023.
He claimed under the Sunshine State laws, the public can only use the beach up to the high tide line behind private homes.
But Hill — a self-described “semi-retired” woman “on Medicare”– refused to leave Littrell’s property and even filmed his family without their permission, Littrell claimed in the suit.
Littrell claims Hill’s use of his property is part of a push by local activists to change rules, taking away private beach use. He also claimed he was “forced to hire security” to protect his family from the bothersome beach-goers and he even had to call the local police once to boot Hill last May.
“My clients have been wanting to enjoy the peaceful use of their beach,” Littrell’s lawyer, Brent Day, argued in court in December. “They have been harassed by numerous organizations … day in and day out.”
By Mehaffey at the same hearing fired back that there wasn’t evidence that Hill had crossed over the high water line and said Littrell’s suit was too “vague.”
Leighanne was shown in a 2023 video telling a sunbather to leave her property and relocate to the “water’s edge.”
The “I Want It That Way Singer” stood silently holding up a “No Trespassing” sign while his wife argued with the man.
The man said at one point he’s “not f–king moving” and told them to call the cops.
