A Georgia woman tried to move back into her own home, but when she arrived, she found an alleged squatter on the property and all hell broke loose.
According to WSB-TV, Loletha Hale was charged with criminal trespass and sent to jail when police officers arrived to her Clayton County home on Dec. 9. Hale, the homeowner, had reportedly arrived at her house to clean the place following a months-long battle with Sakemeyia Johnson, the alleged squatter.
But when Hale arrived, Johnson was still inside and had even brought somebody to allegedly intimidate Hale. “I returned on Monday to start painting and she had broken the locks at my property,” Hale told WSB-TV. Johnson was never a tenant of Hale’s; according to officials, Johnson was merely related to an evicted tenant’s partner.
The tug-of-war over the house first began in August when Hale discovered Johnson had made herself comfortable in the house. Eventually, Johnson received a squatting citation, but a judge ruled “Sakemeyia Johnson is not a squatter” because she’s related to the evicted tenant’s partner, according to the New York Post.
After a series of hearings and appeals, Hale continued to fight the decision and on Nov. 18, Johnson was officially sent an eviction notice, which she has ignored, according to the Post. “She just caught up out of nowhere. She had this guy with her, and I locked the door. I locked the screen door, and he forced himself in telling us to get out,” Hale said of the Dec. 9 incident.
That’s when Hale called the cops. Body cam footage from the incident has been released, and in the recordings, a responding officer can be heard telling Hale to see everything from the squatter’s side of things. “Just think of it from this perspective, though,” he reportedly said. “Everybody isn’t as fortunate as you to have a bed. All the little things, a bed in their house, food in the kitchen.”
Despite the officer trying to diffuse the tensions between the two women, Hale reportedly refused to back down, so with that, the homeowner was arrested. According to her arrest report, Hale reportedly “executed an illegal eviction and forcibly removed Ms. Johnson’s belongings.” The report even said at one point, Hale threatened for Johnson to “‘leave before I get my gun.’”
She was charged with a misdemeanor count of terroristic threats and criminal trespassing, but Johnson has received no charges, according to WSB-TV. “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.
Officers on the scene confirmed that Hale has not obtained a signed writ of possession in order to legally evict a tenant, which is why she is facing these charges, according to WSB-TV. Since her arrest, Hale has been released from jail.