A Georgia homeowner was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after attempting to move back into her home, which was being occupied by an alleged squatter.
‘I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions. While this woman, this squatter slept in my home,’ Loletha Hale told WSB-TV Atlanta.
On December 9, Clayton County police and Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home on Livingston Drive after Hale tried to regain access.
A deputy, captured on body camera footage, advised Hale to consider the alleged squatter’s perspective.
‘Just think of it from this perspective, though. Everybody isn’t as fortunate as you to have a bed. All the little things, a bed in their house, food in the kitchen,’ the deputy said.
The dispute began in August when Hale discovered the alleged squatter, Sakemeyia Johnson, in the home and contacted police.
Authorities cited Johnson under Georgia’s new Squatter Reform Act.
However, Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson ruled that Johnson wasn’t a squatter, as she was related to a previously evicted tenant’s partner.
Georgia homeowner Loletha Hale (pictured) was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after attempting to move back into her home, which was being occupied by an alleged squatter, Sakemeyia Johnson
A deputy, captured on body camera footage, advised Hale to consider the alleged squatter’s perspective
‘How can she not be squatting when I’ve never had any type of contract relationship with this person?’ Hale said.
In bodycam footage from the December 9 incident, Johnson explained to officers, ‘I was written a citation saying I was a squatter. But a judge signed an order saying that I wasn’t a squatter.’
This led to a prolonged legal battle, with multiple filings, hearings and even Johnson filing for bankruptcy, naming Hale as her sole creditor.
On November 18, a magistrate judge ruled in Hale’s favor. Hale believed Johnson had vacated the property and returned to begin cleaning up.
However, when she arrived on December 9, she found the locks had been changed and Johnson was still there.
‘I returned on Monday to start painting and she had broken the locks at my property,’ Hale explained.
‘She just caught up out of nowhere. She had this guy with him, and I locked the door. I locked the screen door, and he forced himself in telling us to get out,’ Johnson told police.
Johnson, in the report, described how Hale and a man showed up and locked the door. She added that the man forcibly entered and demanded they leave.
Hale was charged after trying to forcibly remove Johnson, and the case remains unresolved, with Johnson not facing any charges
Pictured: Hale as she waits on the stoop of her own house before being arrested
Officers confirmed Hale hadn’t obtained the proper legal document, a signed writ of possession, to evict Johnson.
Hale admits she had been waiting weeks for the writ, explaining her frustration: ‘To see that woman walk into my mom’s house while I was in the police car, something is wrong with this picture. Something is inherently wrong with this picture.’
The alleged squatter, Johnson, has not been charged with any crime. Meanwhile, Hale was charged with criminal trespassing and a misdemeanor count of terroristic threats.
