Ms. Noel Maltese was convicted in Tennessee of conspiracy to commit theft of property valued $250,000 or more, which is a felony, and of criminal simulation, which is also a felony. She received an eight year sentence, which according to court documents, is to be “served as 48 hours in jail followed by supervised probation.”
In terms of punishment, this person got off light.
Ms. Maltese appealed her convictions and the court of criminal appeals of Tennessee upheld her convictions.
Her offense is as follows. A husband and wife purchased a home from Ms. Maltese and her then-husband in June 2016. A few months after the sale, a man knocked on the front door (Leighton Ward) and said he was with the organization Advocacy for Consumer Rights and said that “the contract that was written on the house… was a fraudulent contract.” Mr. Ward said he was not trying to take the home and that “he just wanted to let us know the we needed to follow through and get our title insurance. And with the title insurance, once we found that, we could get the home free and clear.”
He also claimed that there was paperwork showing that “there was a judgment on the house” and thus the sales contract for the home was fraudulent. Mr. Ward offered to send the paperwork to the homeowner via email instructing him to have the title company “do the title insurance” and that the homeowner was to give some of the money he received from the title insurance claim to the organization called Advocacy for Consumer Rights.
Mr. Ward continued to send the homeowners fraudulent documents with titles such as “certified copy of judgment” entered by the “Federal Postal Court” complete with thumbprint signatures. Naturally, the homeowner did not understand the language on these court documents and did his own research and thought that the materials being presented to him were shady. Soon thereafter, he received an eviction notice from the “Federal Postal Court” via certified mail. He began to feel threatened. He eventually contacted the police and received a protection order against Mr. Ward.
Detectives became involved in the case and researched the Advocacy for Consumer Rights and the Federal Postal Court. They learned that Federal Postal Court was connected to David Wynn Miller. According to their research, they learned that Mr. Miller claimed that Benjamin Franklin started Federal Postal Court on July 4 of 1755 and Mr. Miller claims that he reopened that court in 2012, and is the judge. Mr. Ward claim to be the clerk of Federal Postal Court. The Federal Postal Court was described by detectives as an “offshoot of some sovereign citizen beliefs.”
Multiple members of the family were involved and tried separately. By following the lead of Mr. Ward, they got themselves in serious trouble.
The scheme highlights how everyday people can become victims of sovereign citizens. This was a family who was trying to buy a home, to find somewhere to live and through no fault of their own became victims. Most assuredly, it caused an immense amount of distress for the family.
In the end, the family did not have to move out of the home despite being “evicted.” The people who were guilty of the fraud were punished, perhaps not as harshly as some may think they deserved.
It’s also interesting to note that Mr. Leighton Ward is serving a 23 year sentence for a related crime. You can read more about him here.
You can read the details of Noel’s case here.