On December 9, homeowner Loletha Hale found herself in the back of a police squad car, handcuffed, watching as a woman she described as a squatter entered her home in the Atlanta suburb of Clayton County to stay the night.
“To see that woman walk into my mom’s house while I was in the police car, something is wrong with this picture,” Hale told Channel 2 Action News. “Something is inherently wrong with this picture.”
Hale had called the police to her residence, which had belonged to her mother, after spotting Sakemeyia Johnson inside. It wasn’t the first time. Hale first saw Johnson occupying the home in August, leading to an expensive, months-long court fight. At one point, Johnson declared bankruptcy, listing Hale as her sole creditor.
Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson eventually ruled that Sakemeyia Johnson was not a squatter “because she is related to a previously evicted tenant’s partner.”
Hale said she didn’t know Sakemeyia Johnson or the former tenant’s partner.
On Nov. 18, a magistrate judge ruled in Hale’s favor. She said she had gone to the home to clean up, thinking that Sakemeyia Johnson had moved out, but instead saw that the new locks she had installed had been broken.
“She just caught up out of nowhere,” the alleged squatter told police. “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.”
Hale and her male friend removed Sakemeyia Johnson’s belongings and called the cops.
Sakemeyia Johnson acknowledged to police she had received a citation labeling her a squatter.
“But a judge signed an order saying that I wasn’t a squatter,” she said.
Clayton County police on the scene accused Hale of an illegal eviction. Sakemeyia Johnson also played a cellphone video in which Hale can be heard threatening to get her gun if she didn’t leave.
“Just think of it from this perspective, though,” one of the deputies told Hale. “Everybody isn’t as fortunate as you to have a bed. All the little things, a bed in their house, food in the kitchen.”
Deputies confirmed with court staff that Hale had not obtained a signed writ of possession needed to legally evict a tenant. She was arrested and taken into custody.
“I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions,” Hale said. “While this woman, this squatter, slept in my home.”
Hale said she has been waiting for that document to be signed by a magistrate judge for weeks. It’s unclear if that’ll happen anytime soon.
Chief Magistrate Judge Keisha Wright Hill told Channel 2 that a timetable for resolution can only be provided by Clayton Super Court. She said the delay in the document signing was a result of Sakemeyia Johnson’s bankruptcy filing, which led to an automatic stay of the proceedings.
Meanwhile, Hale faces a criminal trespassing charge and a misdemeanor count of terroristic threats. Johnson, the squatter, has not been charged with any crime.
