A group of self-proclaimed “sovereign citizens” occupied a 10,000 square-foot mansion in Baltimore County, Maryland, a widow had put up for sale and unilaterally claimed possession of the property in the latest incident of far-right extremists attempting to undermine the rule of law, the Baltimore Sun reports.
After her husband died in 2020, the woman contracted a real estate agent and put the property–with a stone fireplace, vaulted wood-beam ceilings, six bedrooms and five bathrooms, a deluxe butler’s pantry and indoor pizza oven–on the market earlier this year and moved into a smaller residence. In June, neighbors told her that a chain had been put up blocking access to the house. Signs warning against trespassers appeared along the property line. When she went back to inspect the property, she found someone had changed the locks on all the doors.
Five people were reportedly living in the house without her permission, claiming that they had made a “sovereign acquisition” of the house. Reportedly “sovereign citizens,” the group shuns US laws and courts, claiming that they exist outside any governmental legal authority.
Heavily armored police unsuccessfully attempted to evict the group from the house, but backed off after the squatters barricaded themselves in the house. When one of them left the property, police detained him. Michael Lawrence Warren, a felon with convictions in various states for impersonating a lawyer and committing multiple sex offenses, was later arrested after police obtained a search warrant for the property and found a gun and ammunition allegedly belonging to Warren in the house.
Another squatter, Tessa M. Modiri of Bel Air, Maryland, was arrested Wednesday for burglary. A licensed dentist, Modiri has attempted to claim ownership of various residential and commercial properties in northern Maryland under dubious legal claims popular with sovereign citizens.
Modiri claimed ownership of the Baltimore County property because she gained access to it through a broken back door, saying that the house was clearly abandoned. Maryland allows for squatters to claim ownership of an abandoned property after having resided on the disputed property for twenty years, not a month.
Modori, Warren and three other adults–Ayyannaabe Cox, Cesar Tellez Zuniga and Kia Dyer–were charged with burglary and other crimes for illegally occupying the house. An infant was also living on the property. Cox, Zuniga and Dyer have not yet been arrested.
Police said the group originally gained access to the house by having one of them pose as a real estate agent for a prospective buyer. Once inside, the group changed security codes on the property and had security cameras installed by a contractor. They also changed the locks on the exterior doors.
As part of the claim to the property, they had a home inspector to review the property, a requirement for certain real estate transactions in the county. ”They’re pros at this,” said the homeowner, who asked not to be identified for her safety.