EDITOR’S NOTE: This story concludes with a link to an April 27, 2010, story by CourthouseNews.com. At the bottom-left of the CourthouseNews story, readers will find a link to the RICO lawsuit filed by public officials last year against Richard Enrique Ulloa. The document is worth the time to read because it shows how public servants can become targets of spectacularly vexatious litigation that forces them or their employers to hire attorneys, thus burdening judicial resources and potentially driving up costs for taxpayers.
At least part of the bizarre saga of Richard Enrique Ulloa has come to a close: Ulloa, a 52-year-old purported “sovereign citizen” who resided in Stone Ridge, N.Y., was sentenced yesterday to five years in federal prison for mailing “fraudulent liens and judgments to a variety of individuals and financial institutions who had displeased” him, the office of U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian of the Northren District of New York said.
The FBI joined Hartunian’s office in announcing the sentence, which was ordered by U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy after Ulloa asserted various individuals and entities owed him billions of dollars. McAvoy also ordered Ulloa placed on supervised probation for three years after his prison release and to pay $63,401 in restitution.
Ulloa’s bizarre tale touched on multiple courtrooms in multiple jurisdictions. It also involved public officials fighting back against Ulloa by suing him under the federal racketeering statute.
In April 2010, the County of Ulster, N.Y., and the towns of Lloyd, Rosendale and Ulster asserted that Ulloa and others “sent or caused to be sent mailings and/or wires consisting of ‘criminal complaints,’ ‘invoices,’ ‘demands for payment,’ and ‘judgments’ that contained materially false statements,” according to federal records.
Owing to sovereign-inspired hectoring, public officials began to fear for their safety and the town of Rosendale ordered body armor for court officials, according to the Times Herald-Record.
Read an April 2010 story (and see the accompanying court document) on CourthouseNews.com.