Kathy Watts sought a stalking protective order against Christine Owen on the ground that Owen falsely reported hazardous conditions affecting minor children in Watts’ home to the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Family and Children’s Services, and had closely observed Watts and her family’s private lives for years. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court issued a stalking protective order enjoining Owen from electronically or otherwise surveilling, investigating, or interfering with Watts. On appeal, Owen contends that her report of child abuse was immune from civil or criminal liability, that the preponderance of the evidence did not establish the elements of stalking as required for the trial court to issue the protective order, and that the trial court erred in finding that her internet research constituted stalking. For the reasons that follow, we disagree and affirm.1 In order to obtain a stalking protective order, Watts was required to establish the elements of the offense of stalking by a preponderance of the evidence.2 “The grant or denial of a motion for protective order generally lies within the sound discretion of the trial court, and will not be reversed absent an abuse of that discretion.”3
Viewed in a light most favorable to the trial court’s findings,4 the evidence showed that Watts and Owen filed competing petitions to adopt Watts’ grandchild, M. F. L., who had previously been placed in Owen’s home as a foster child.5 Gerald Johnson, the chief investigator with the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office, testified that in April 2010 he received a complaint from Owen that alleged the deprivation, neglect, and possible abuse of two minor children living in Watts’ home. M. F. L. and her brother were living with Watts at that time. Johnson investigated and found nothing to substantiate Owen’s allegations. Owen later telephoned Johnson and indicated that the children’s mother, who was under “some type of safety plan” not to contact the children, “had gone out a window.” Johnson followed up on the conversation, determined that Watts was the guardian of her grandchildren, and decided that no further investigation was warranted.
