A homeowner in Clayton County was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after she tried to move back into her home while someone else was living there illegally.
“I slept on a mat on a concrete floor all night in terrible conditions.” This intruder slept in my house while this woman was there, Loletha Hale told Channel 2’s Justin Gray.
On December 9, cops from Clayton County and deputies from the Sheriff’s office were called to the home on Livingston Drive.
On body camera video, a deputy can be heard telling Hale to see things from the squatter’s point of view.
“But think about it this way,” Not everyone is as lucky as you to have a bed. “Everything little, like a bed in their house and food in the kitchen,” the deputy said.
But Hale said it all began in August when she called the police because she thought there was a squatter living in the house.
Sakemeyia Johnson was given a ticket by police under the new Georgia Squatter Reform Act.
But Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson said that “Sakemeyia Johnson is not a squatter” because she is linked to the partner of a tenant who was evicted before.
“She has never been in a contract relationship with me, so how can she not be squatting?” Hale said.
A body camera from the sheriff’s office at the scene on December 9 shows Johnson telling police, “I was given a ticket for squatting.” But I wasn’t a renter because a judge signed off on it.
That began a court fight that lasted for months and included many filings, hearings, and appeals. Johnson even went so far as to file for bankruptcy, naming Hale as her only debtor.
A magistrate court, on the other hand, made a final decision in Hale’s favor on November 18.
Hale said she thought Johnson had left the house and came over the weekend to start cleaning it up.
“When I came back on Monday to start painting, the locks on my house were broken,” Hale said.
“She caught up out of the blue.” I locked the door because she had this guy with her. Johnson told the cops, “I locked the screen door, and he broke in and told us to leave.”
In the report of the event, the deputy who responded said that Hale “performed an illegal eviction and took Ms. Johnson’s belongings by force.”
The police report says that Hale “could clearly be heard saying ‘leave before I get my gun.'” on a cell phone video.
As the police arrived, they were told by court staff that Hale did not have a signed writ of possession, which is needed to officially kick out a tenant.
Hale says she knows that because she has been waiting for weeks for a magistrate judge to sign the paper.
I was in the police car when that woman walked into my mom’s house. Something is wrong with this picture. The picture itself is flawed in some way.
Hale has been charged with trespassing and making terroristic threats, which is a crime.
The person who is thought to be squatting has not been charged with a crime.
Source: Homeowner ends up in jail after calling police to remove squatter living inside her house