Judge issues protective order against Rep. Cory Mills

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A Florida judge signed off on a protective order Tuesday against U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, directing him to have no contact with a former girlfriend who accused him of threatening her.

Circuit Judge Fred Koberlein Jr. issued the ruling against the two-term Republican congressman in response to a petition filed by Lindsey Langston, NBC News reported.

Langston wrote in her petition that Mills' behavior toward her became increasingly aggressive after they broke up, threatening to blackmail her with revenge porn and physical violence against anyone she dated, NBC reported.

"Cory continued to message me on Instagram accounts I run after blocking him and asking him to not contact me," wrote Langston, a Republican state committee woman and Miss United States 2024. "The messages progressively got more threatening over time."

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Koberlein wrote in his 14-page order that Langston had "reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence without an injunction being entered," The New York Times reported.

Langston ended her relationship with the Orlando-area lawmaker earlier this year after he was investigated for assaulting another woman in Washington, D.C., The Times reported.

In August, Washington's Metropolitan Police Department closed the investigation into what began as a domestic disturbance, after the woman recanted her allegations against Mills, who maintained there was no physical altercation, according to The Hill.

The restraining order directs Mills, 45, to stay at least 500 feet away from Langston and to not contact her until Jan. 1. The order also blocks Mills from referring to Langston on social media, according to NBC News.

Koberlein wrote that Mills claimed during a hearing that he had deleted any intimate videos of Langston and he only suggested he would send out nonsexual videos of her, according to NBC News. But Koberlein called that "irrelevant" because Langston was unaware that he no longer possessed the intimate videos.