Malak Baalim, a.k.a. Norbert K.O. Cody is currently incarcerated in Missouri. He is pursuing a civil action naming Preservation Hall LLC, Union Realty and others as defendants. He makes many different claims, all of which are sovereign citizen in nature.
He claims that he and a real estate agent made a verbal contract to sell him a property in St. Louis for $1.2 million. He’s alleging that the agent breached the verbal contract by not producing the contract and not responding to his messages as promised. He is also accusing him of defamation of character by giving “false reports” to the St. Louis police who later arrested him.
When arrested, he asserted that “wrote [his] own contract proposal to purchase the property…and mailed it [via] registered mail directly to Preservation Hall.”
Along with this contract, plaintiff claims that he included “a check for $1,200,000 from [his] private Busey Bank account.” He also purports to have sent a document on “bank letterhead highlighting [his] status as the authorize[d] signer of the account holder Norbert KO Cody II,” along with a “negotiable instrument accepting the $1,200,000…for value pledged under HJR 192[,] now public law to ensure payment. Plaintiff states that he gave defendants “the option to decline the contract proposal by mailing back [his] instrument with a decline letter or to deposit the instrument accepting the contract and…to mail [him] the keys and title.”
HJR 192 is a reference to a 1933 House joint resolution involving the suspension of the gold standard.
In addition, he also sent a number of different documents to the realty company making claims on the property including an affidavit of truth, and filed an allodial title with the Secretary of State “claiming the land…as indigenous land.” He also threatened to charge one of the companies with Uniform Commercial Code violations and if they don’t follow his orders they would have to pay him “200 million lawful US silver dollars.”
He goes on to argue that he became “the holder” [of the property] because they did not respond to his documents or state that the decline his offer. He also says that because of their actions, it resulted in him being held in custody.
The court was not persuaded by his arguments. One of the main reasons in particular had to do with the probable cause statement indicating that he “toured the property and told them that he’d already owned the building” and asked for the sales contract. He told them that “things would be easier” if the agent “just gave him the keys.” The agent refused and he threatened to put a lien on the property and to begin the foreclosure process and “make the agents life difficult.” He attempted to change the electric service to be placed in his own name and cancel security services at the property. When the security firm refused, he “made threatening phone calls ent emails, mailed an invalid check[,] and left a threatening voicemail.” Plaintiff also “provided invalid UCC financial statements, invalid checks[,] and made a series of threats to facilitate the transfer of title to the Preservation Hall property.” Ultimately, plaintiff was arrested after “motion detectors inside Preservation Hall activated the alarm,” and plaintiff was found standing in front of the building. Following his arrest, plaintiff asserted that he was “a sovereign citizen” and rejected “governmental authority.”
This gives you some idea what it’s like to deal with a sovereign citizen. They make people’s lives miserable and we don’t do enough to protect the average, everyday person from these types of problems.
Source: Baalim v. Pres. Hall Llc, 2022 U.S. Dist.