From J.W. v. T.S., decided Tuesday by Massachusetts Appeals Court Judges Justices Maureen Walsh, Robert Toone & Gloria Tan. The plaintiff appears to be Julia Prange Wallerce, who had been on the Winthrop Planning Board and the Winthrop Transportation Advisory Committee and had been Assistant Director of Transportation at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and the defendant appears to be Todd Sacco, who had run for the Winthrop City Council in 2023:
What began as friendly social media conversations about local politics between two people from Winthrop devolved into a situation in which the plaintiff felt targeted by the defendant's comments in his social media posts, private messages, and text messages. On January 18, 2024, the plaintiff applied for a harassment prevention order (c. 258E order), pursuant to G. L. c. 258E, after her requests that the defendant stop communicating with her went ignored….
To obtain a harassment prevention order, a plaintiff must demonstrate "harassment," which the statute defines in relevant part as "[three] or more acts of willful and malicious conduct aimed at a specific person committed with the intent to cause fear, intimidation, abuse or damage to property and that does in fact cause fear, intimidation, abuse or damage to property." In reviewing the issuance of a harassment prevention order, "we consider whether the judge could find, by a preponderance of the evidence, together with all permissible inferences," that the defendant committed three or more qualifying acts of harassment aimed at a specific person…. The plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that the three acts were "maliciously intended," defined by the statute as being "characterized by cruelty, hostility, or revenge."
"The definition of 'harassment' in c. 258E was crafted by the Legislature to 'exclude constitutionally protected speech,' … and to limit the categories of constitutionally unprotected speech that may qualify as 'harassment' to two: 'fighting words' and 'true threats.'" True threats have been defined as "words or actions that—taking into account the context in which they arise—cause the victim to fear [physical] harm now or in the future and evince intent on the part of the speaker or actor to cause such fear." …
The plaintiff's testimony at the evidentiary hearing, which the judge credited, included her testimony that in 2017 she and the defendant had "amicable conversations about community issues" on social media and later by text messages, e-mail messages, and telephone. However, in the following year or two, the defendant began sending her countless e-mail and text messages that contained offensive language, insulting and ridiculing her about her positions on bike lanes and transportation issues.
