UPDATED 8:25 A.M. EDT (JULY 16, U.S.A.) Just days after the FBI warned police across Tennessee to be aware of “sovereign citizens” carrying fake law-enforcement credentials and engaging in other scams, two purported “sovereigns” have been arrested in an alleged parking scam.
Yes, a parking scam — one that involves motorists being duped into paying parking fees to purported “Moorish American nationals” instead of the rightful owners of downtown Memphis parking lots, a local television station is reporting.
WMC-TV says that Eddie Medlock and Noble Atum Re El-Bey were arrested on charges of ripping off parkers.
One parking-lot owner “spends seven days a week chasing off scammers pretending to work at the lots, collecting money from unsuspecting drivers trying to park,” the station reported.
The alleged parking scam follows on the heels of other recent scams involving purported Moorish Americans, some of whom have been involved in alleged real-estate swindles and the filing of false liens against public officials.
This individual is a suspect in a burglary case involving purported “Moorish” nationals, police said.
The Montgomery County Police Department (Maryland) has released a photo of an alleged suspect who may be part of a bizarre crime linked to purported members of the purported “Moorish Nation.”
Individuals who purport to be “Moorish Americans” or “Moorish nationals” have been linked to plots to steal real estate in multiple U.S. states.
News accounts of such individuals sometimes describe the alleged thieves as “squatters” — individuals who prepare paperwork confections to take up residence in homes they don’t own or homes in foreclosure.
Some individuals who purport to be Moorish Americans are African Americans who claim to be immune to U.S. law, rather like so-called “sovereign citizens.”
The individual in the photo (left) was photographed inside a Montgomery County home that is part of a burglary investigation that already has led to criminal charges being filed against two others, police said.
On January 3 at approximately 4:15 p.m., 2nd District officers responded to a burglary in progress at a residence in the 7000 block of Natelli Woods Lane in Bethesda. The residence was for sale and was unoccupied. Officers did not locate any suspects on scene. However, witnesses stated that they observed a black male and black female inside the home. When witnesses had questioned the male suspect about his presence on the property, the male stated that the land belonged to “his people and his tribe.”
On January 5 at approximately 11:36 p.m., 2nd District officers responded again to the same residence for a burglary in progress. Officers arrived on scene and located individuals on the property. LAMONT MAURICE BUTLER, age 29, of the 2100 block of Duckhorn Court in Waldorf, stated to responding officers that he was a member of the Moorish Nation and had the right to claim the property.
Further investigation by detectives determined that Butler conspired with his girlfriend, SAKITA SHANIK HOLLY, age 34, of an unconfirmed address, to commit the burglary at the residence on Natelli Woods Lane. Butler and Holly have both been charged by investigators with this first-degree burglary and have a scheduled trial date of September 17.
During this investigation, detectives obtained photographs of a third suspect involved in this burglary; the photographs show the suspect inside the burglarized home. Investigators are asking anyone who can identify this suspect to please call the Vice and Intelligence Unit at 240-773-5958.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated at 9:37 a.m. EDT on May 13 and again on May 17 at 2:24 p.m. to reflect that Kenneth Wayne Leaming is demanding payment from a federal judge in ounces of silver, not dollars . . .
Devitoe Farmer, the purported Tennessee “sovereign citizen” indicted last year on charges of stealing government property in a “quit-claims” caper, has pleaded guilty to three counts of theft.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Wayne Leaming — the AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” in Washington state jailed after convictions for possessing firearms illegally and filing bogus claims against government officials involved in the prosecution of the ASD Ponzi scheme — now has sent a bill to the federal judge who presided over his criminal trial.
The bill demands payment of 208,000 ounces of “99.9% fine silver” from the judge.
First, the Farmer story . . .
“In the Mid-South, we have witnessed first-hand the potential threat posed by those claiming to be sovereign citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III of the Western District of Tennessee.
Farmer, 46, apparently decided he wanted to own homes — and apparently came up with a paperwork confection in which he transferred three properties owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to himself.
From a statement by prosecutors (italics added):
According to an indictment filed on March 21, 2012, and facts of the case revealed during the plea hearing, Farmer took possession of three HUD-owned properties in the city of Memphis during February and April of 2011. His scheme was discovered when employees with a property management firm contracted by HUD to care for the properties discovered that Farmer had filed quit claim deeds to himself with the Shelby County Register of Deeds Office on the properties and placed tenants in them. HUD-contracted real estate agents also noticed that “for sale” signs had been removed from the properties and that locks had been changed.
One of the properties was rented to an individual, who supplied investigators with copies of the lease agreement made with Farmer. Another property was occupied by a relative of Farmer. When asked by Memphis Police Department officers for proof of his ownership of the properties, Farmer presented documents declaring that he was a sovereign citizen.
There have been some very strange events in the Memphis region, including the bizarre case of Tabitha Gentry. Gentry is accused of licensing herself to occupy an East Memphis mansion she did not own.
NewsOne.com has a report on Tabitha Gentry. The site reports that Gentry calls herself Abka Re Bey and claims to have taken over the mansion “in the name of Allah, the most high.”
Also see KSLA report on Gentry, a purported “Moorish American” who allegedly mouthed off to a judge after the eviction from the property and claimed lawyers are “Communists.”
Leaming, 57, was found guilty in the Western District of Washington earlier this year of possessing firearms as a convicted felon and filing bogus liens for billions of dollars against public officials involved in the prosecution of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme. One of the targets was a U.S. Secret Service agent.
Both before and after his conviction, Leaming filed blizzards of paperwork. Among his most recent filings is a claim that U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver. Leighton presided over Leaming’s criminal trial.
AdSurfSaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming now claims a federal judge owes him 208,000 ounces of fine silver. Source: Federal court files.
