A Georgia woman, Loletha Hale, was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing while trying to move back into her own home.
“I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions while this woman, this squatter, slept in my home,” said Hale, who was arrested outside her mother’s old home in Livingston on December 9.
She was confronted by an alleged squatter, Sakemeyia Johnson, who had been ordered by a court to vacate the property in mid-November, according to the New York Post.
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Hale had arrived to clean the house following a prolonged battle with Johnson. When Hale arrived at her home, she found Johnson, who had never been her tenant, still inside. Johnson, related to an evicted tenant’s partner, had brought someone along to intimidate Hale.
“I returned on Monday to start painting and she had broken the locks at my property,” Hale told WSB-TV.
“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,” she added.
Hale refused to back down, prompting the arrival of the police. Bodycam footage revealed an officer asking Hale to consider Johnson’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 officer said.
When Hale refused to back down, she was cuffed and carted off, and with her arrest report alleging she “executed an illegal eviction and forcibly removed Ms. Johnson’s belongings,” and at one point “could clearly be heard stating ‘leave before I get my gun.’”
Hale was charged with misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats and criminal trespassing, while Johnson has not faced any charges, according to WSB-TV.
“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,” Hale said.
The dispute began in August when Hale discovered Johnson living in her house without permission.
Johnson was issued a squatting citation, but a Clayton County judge ruled she was not a squatter due to her relation to an evicted tenant’s partner.
Johnson referenced this connection in her favor during the December 9 altercation, as seen in bodycam footage.
“I was written a citation saying I was a squatter. But a judge signed an order saying that I wasn’t a squatter,” Johnson said in the footage.
Hale contested the decision through several hearings and appeals, ultimately succeeding in legally evicting Johnson on November 18. However, Johnson appears to have ignored the eviction order.
“How can she not be squatting when I’ve never had any type of contract relationship with this person?” Hale asked.
Squatting has become increasingly common in Georgia in recent years.
In 2017, there were only three reported squatting cases, but by 2021, this number had risen to 50.
By 2023, the state saw 198 civil squatting cases.
