澳彩开奖

A Georgia judge didn鈥檛 mince words when he sentenced two who illegally attempted to use frivolous court filings and squatting to take possession of homes.

Their actions 鈥渨ere nothing but thievery and burglary,鈥� Cobb Superior Court Judge A. Gregory Poole told Susan Lorraine Weidman, 52, of Kennesaw, Ga., and co-defendant Matthew Lowery, 29, of Alpharetta, Ga., at sentencing hearings last Friday, the reported.

鈥淭his was no experiment,鈥� the judge said. 鈥淵ou had folks breaking into houses, changing the locks and outright thieving. It was just incredulous to me that a citizen could think she could get away with this.鈥�

Assistant District Attorney John Melvin told the court that 鈥淲eidman, as the ringleader, brought a lot of pain to a lot of people. You see a pattern of activity over several years in which Ms. Weidman refuses to get it,鈥� the Marietta newspaper reported.

Then the judge sentenced Weidman to 20 years in prison and Lowery to 10 years.

A week earlier, a Georgia jury convicted Weidman of three counts of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, and Lowery was found guilty of two RICO violations. The two were part of a larger crime ring that targeted vacant homes in various counties, according to prosecutors.

In January, Giulio Glenn Greye, 61, of Kennesaw, Ga., and his son, Ian Greye, 34, both of Kennesaw, Ga., were each sentenced to two years in prison as part of the same case.

The fraudulent house-takeover scheme by antigovernment sovereign citizens isn鈥檛 unique to Georgia. In fact, it鈥檚 being seen with increased frequency throughout the United States, including a. There, one of the antigovernment sovereign citizens attempted to gain control of 11 houses in foreclosure by simply by moving in, changing the locks and filing 鈥渜uiet title鈥� legal papers.

In the Georgia case, Weidman not only filed fraudulent court papers, but created her own bogus law firm and fictitious attorney.

With a straight face, Weidman told the court the situation 鈥渨as a failure to communicate between me and law enforcement.鈥�

But the prosecutor saw it differently.

鈥淭he ludicrous 鈥榚xplanations鈥� these defendants gave for going into vacant houses and trying to claim them as their own defies common sense, and the jurors saw that,鈥� Melvin said in a statement.

Weidman, the prosecutor said, 鈥渨ent so far as to create a fictitious law firm and assume fake names. If she believed what she was doing was legal, as she claimed, she wouldn鈥檛 have to lie about it.鈥�

In one instance, Weidman entered a vacant home in Decatur, Ga., changed the locks and filed fake ownership documents with the Superior Court Clerk in DeKalb County.聽 When questioned about her frivolous court filings, Weidman lied to law enforcement, investigators said.

Similarly, Lowery and others occupied a house in Cumming, Ga. When challenged by a real estate firm, Weidman sent a signed letter from a nonexistent law firm and lawyer on behalf of a phony property-management firm threatening legal action.