A Florida judge is being asked to resign after denying a woman’s protective order against her ex-boyfriend, two days before he killed her last week.
Audrey Peterson, 61, was fatally shot by her ex-boyfriend, 71-year-old Francis Scoza, on Feb. 9 while she was running towards a neighbor’s home looking help, FOX affiliate WTVT reported, citing Clearwater police.
According to the outlet, Peterson and Scoza were in a long-term relationship that ended recently. It’s unclear exactly when the relationship ended.
Police said Scoza forced his way into Peterson’s home through the back and fired at her while she was fleeing. According to WTVT, Peterson was shot multiple times and collapsed in front of the neighbor’s home. Scoza then turned the gun on himself.
Court records reviewed by HuffPost show Peterson filed a domestic injunction against Scoza two days before he attacked her, accusing him of stalking.
Peterson’s case included a petition seeking protection from Scoza, but her temporary protection was denied by Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Doneene Loar, according to court documents obtained by HuffPost.
The petition alleged that Scoza sent Peterson several unsettling text messages in regards to their ended relationship. It also claimed Scoza had handguns “in his condo and possibly in his car.”
Peterson also mentioned in the Petition an instance where she was verbally abused by Scoza on Jan. 29 at a local sports bar. She later messaged him later that day to leave her alone, but he responded “NEVER,” according to the petition.
According to the petition, Scoza drove behind Peterson’s home on Feb. 2, claiming he wanted to see his dogs, and revved his engine before speeding off.
Judge Doneene Loar ultimately denied the petition.
In a statement to WTVT, a spokesperson for Loar said in a statement that Peterson’s petition “did not contain enough detail for the judge to determine there had been multiple episodes of willful and malicious acts which had no purpose other than to harass the petitioner, and which would cause the petitioner substantial emotional distress.”
According to Peterson’s petition, she filed police reports against Scoza on Feb. 2, 3 and 7. Police warned Scoza to not contact Peterson or drive by her home.
Court records showed that Peterson was granted a hearing set for Feb. 20 and a court service notified Scoza of the case against him on the day Scoza shot her.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) called for Loar’s resignation in a tweet on Wednesday, calling the judge’s denial to grant Peterson’s protective order resulted in Peterson being “brutally murdered.”
The congresswoman herself was denied a temporary stalking injunction by the same judge in 2021, after she alleged former GOP primary rival William Braddock made repeated violent threats to “take her out,” The Associated Press reported at the time.
“I’ve personally experienced this Judge’s shortcomings in her rulings. She has denied the cases of multiple people, including my own case regarding stalking,” Luna wrote. “As a result of her poor judgment, she has failed residents in Pinellas County and failed victims of domestic violence.”
Laura Highman, Peterson’s former supervisor at Johns Hopkin All Children’s Hospital, where she’d worked as a registered nurse for more than a decade, told the Tampa Bay Times that Peterson was “legitimately scared” of Scoza.
“She changed her routine, she was coming to work early and leaving a bit earlier,” Highman told the newspaper. “She called the police and even had their cellphone numbers saved in her phone. She was constantly texting them letting them know what was going on.”
One of Peterson’s daughters described her mother on Facebook as someone who “dedicated herself to the community in many ways since moving to Clearwater in 1996.”
In a separate post, she wrote, “I didn’t get to spend as much time with her as I wanted to ― even living so close by. The time I did get to spend with my mother I will cherish forever (I might even miss her teasing me and bringing up embarrassing stories from childhood, constantly despite my protest).”
Peterson’s daughter expressed her disappointment with law officials, saying they “failed” to protect her mother.
“You did everything you knew how to do, and those in places of authority ― to serve and protect ― failed,” she wrote. “You put your faith in those who you thought were best fit to help you and they failed. They failed you 5 times in 2 weeks. They failed despite your asking for help. They failed despite your pleas. They did not listen. They did not care.”
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-866-331-9474 or text “loveis” to 22522 for the National Dating Abuse Helpline.