Backstreet Boys' Brian Littrell sues Florida sheriff's office over beach
trespassers
[July 17, 2025]
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell says a local
Florida sheriff's office isn't doing enough to protect his
multimillion-dollar beachfront property from trespassers and is asking a
judge for an order commanding deputies to do so.
The petition filed last month by Littrell's company in a Florida
Panhandle county touches on a perennial tug-of-war between
usually-wealthy oceanfront property owners and beach-loving members of
the public, especially in Florida, which has 825 miles of sandy beaches.
Under Florida law, any sand on a beach below the high tide water mark is
public. Many homeowners own the sand down to the average high-water
line, though some counties over the decades have passed local ordinances
that let the public use otherwise private beaches for sunbathing,
fishing and walking if people have historically had access for those
purposes.
Property records show that Littrell's company purchased the property in
Santa Rosa Beach in Walton County in 2023 for $3.8 million.
A spokeswoman for the Walton County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that
the office doesn't comment on pending litigation.
“The Walton County Sheriff’s Office prides itself on handling every
situation, call for service, or interaction with professionalism using a
customer service approach,” public information officer Lindsey Darby
said in an email. “This has always been our philosophy and will remain
so moving forward.”
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 In the petition, Littrell’s company
said that chairs, umbrellas and small tables had been put out on the
beach, as well as “No Trespassing” signs, to mark it as private
property. But that effort had been in vain “as numerous trespassers
have set out to antagonize, bully, and harass the Littrell family by
regularly, every day, trespassing,” according to the petition.
The sheriff’s office has refused requests to remove
trespassers or charge them, and the family has had to hire private
security, the petition said.
Walton County, which has become home to several famous property
owners besides Littrell over the past two decades, has been at the
center of a recent fight between private property owners and the
public over access to beaches.
A 2018 Florida law that stemmed from a Walton County ordinance
blocked any local government from passing ordinances dealing with
public beach access until affected homeowners were notified, a
public hearing was held and a court had determined whether a private
beach was historically open to the public.
Florida lawmakers this year approved legislation that restored
control back to local authorities, and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it
into law last month in Santa Rosa Beach, the beach town where
Littrell's house is located.
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