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Kentucky woman's stalking order overturned after Chuck E. Cheese encounters

By · Via Times of India · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The dispute originated during late 2025 amid tensions surrounding a divorce involving Harbin's aunt and allegations of an extramarital affair with West. Harbin testified that West repeatedly visited her workplace, stared at her, and yelled at her grandmother, creating fear for her personal safety. West maintained that she held regular venue passes for her family and denied knowing Harbin or engaging in an affair. The appellate court vacated the lower court's December 2025 order because the documented conduct did not meet the legal threshold for stalking under state law.

Key points

  • Kentucky law requires evidence of explicit or implicit threats of death or physical injur…: Kentucky law requires evidence of explicit or implicit threats of death or physical injury to establish stalking.
  • Lower court protective orders will be reversed on appeal if documented interactions fail…: Lower court protective orders will be reversed on appeal if documented interactions fail to satisfy statutory thresholds.
  • Uncomfortable interpersonal encounters and staring do not legally justify issuing a prote…: Uncomfortable interpersonal encounters and staring do not legally justify issuing a protective order under state standards.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Repeated encounters at a workplace can make an already difficult family dispute more uncomfortable, particularly when tensions surrounding a divorce involve people outside the marriage. In Kentucky, a series of encounters at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant led a woman to seek a stalking protection order against another woman whom some members of her family believed was involved with her aunt's husband. The dispute eventually reached the state's Court of Appeals, which found that the evidence did not establish the threats required under Kentucky law.

In an

opinion issued on November 6, 2026, the Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the protection order granted to Abigail Taylor Harbin against Billie West. The ruling in Billie West v. Abigail Taylor Harbin, an unpublished opinion available on Justia, examined whether West's repeated appearances at the restaurant and other encounters amounted to stalking under state law. The appellate court concluded that there was no evidence West had explicitly or implicitly threatened Harbin with physical injury or death, a necessary element of the applicable legal standard.

How the dispute began at Chuck E. Cheese

According…

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