Larry Ellison of Williamstown protests across the street from Farm N Country Hardware in Williamstwn recently. The owners of the store have gotten a restraining order against Ellison. Photo courtesy Times Argus WILLIAMSTOWN - Larry Ellison has had a beef with Perry Hollyer who runs Farm & Country Hardware on Main Street.

Mr. Ellison has been picketing the store for weeks, carrying a sign charging what Mr. Hollyer believes are slanderous statements.

Finally, last week, Mr. Hollyer went to court in Chelsea and gained a restraining order to keep Mr. Ellison away from his family, home and business for at least one year.

A “no-stalking” order was approved by Judge Thomas Devine during a brief hearing at the Chelsea courthouse last Tuesday morning and the order will likely end the month-long vigil across the road from Mr. Hollyer’s hardware store.

“I’m stripping away the veneer of respectability,” Mr. Ellison told the Times Argus. His actions earned him a night in jail, a psychiatric evaluation and a temporary relief from abuse order last week.

The restraining order prohibits Mr. Ellison from coming within 100 feet of Mr. Hollyer, his immediate family members, his Chelsea Road home and his Route 14 business for the next year.

It also prohibits any communication with Mr. Hollyer or his family.

Mr. Ellison brought two of his signs to court with him. While he was in court, the signs remained propped up against his car in the parking area outside the court house.

Mr. Hollyer said that it wasn’t the signs that prompted his request for a relief from abuse order. It was, he said, concern for the safety of his family given what he characterized as a pattern of instability that began with a brief altercation in late- June.

According paperwork filed with the application for a restraining order, Mr. Ellison struck Mr. Hollyer when the two men clashed over some painting Mr. Ellison had agreed to do for one of Mr. Hollyer’s tenants.

Mr. Ellison, who is expected to be charged next month with simple assault and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, claims he was acting in self-defense after being confronted by Mr. Hollyer and one of his sons. Mr. Hollyer claims that he warded off the punch, prompting Mr. Ellison to come at him with a hammer.

Since that time, Mr. Hollyer told Judge Devine he has been verbally threatened by Mr. Ellison, who he claimed has stalked him in his car and vandalized his property.

Mr. Ellison denied ever threatening Mr. Hollyer, described the incident in the car as a coincidence and noted the “vandalism” involved his decision to retrieve perennial bulbs that he planted on Mr. Hollyer’s property.

Judge Devine noted there was “no love lost” between the two men and that this was reason enough to believe there was substance to some of Mr. Hollyer’s claims.

“The level of hostility that Mr. Ellison has for Mr. Hollyer is apparent,” he said, before issuing the order.