Oak Ridge Today

Cromwell files $137 million in liens against law enforcement, IRS, Social Security

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Lee-Cromwell-Preliminary-Hearing-Jan-15-2016

Lee H. Cromwell, the Oak Ridge man convicted of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017, has filed $137 million in liens against local law enforcement officials and agencies, as well as against the Internal Revenue Service and a Social Security service center, according to state records. Cromwell, who was convicted after a fatal parking lot crash at the Midtown Community Center after fireworks in Oak Ridge on July 4, 2015, is pictured above during a preliminary hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 12:15 p.m. Feb. 17.

Lee Harold Cromwell, the Oak Ridge man convicted of vehicular homicide and aggravated assault on Wednesday, has filed $137 million in liens against local law enforcement officials and agencies, as well as against the Internal Revenue Service and a Social Security service center, according to state records.

Cromwell has been indicted by a grand jury in Davidson County in Nashville on Class A and Class E felonies. Officials announced those indictments after Cromwell was convicted at the end of his vehicular homicide trial in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation elaborated, saying that Cromwell was one of 11 people indicted in a 320-count indictment after a one-year investigation into fraudulent liens in East Tennessee that was conducted with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So far, 10 of the 11 people have been arrested on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records, the TBI said. Multiple other state, county, and local law enforcement agencies participated in the arrests on Wednesday.

Seven of those arrested, or more than half of them, are from Anderson County. They claim to be “sovereign citizens,” or people who do not typically “believe that they have to abide by the rules everyone else follows because they have declared their personal independence from government,” said Dave Clark, Anderson County district attorney general.

TBI special agents began their investigation at the request of Clark in May 2016. They were helped by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. [Read more…]

DA’s office also recused from July 4 fatal crash case because of liens filed by defendant

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Anderson County Criminal Court Lee Cromwell Jim Scott July 25 2016

Lee Cromwell, right, who has been charged with vehicular homicide and 16 other charges after a fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015, huddles with his family and defense attorney James Scott, left, after an arraignment in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Monday, July 25, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 11:47 a.m. July 27.

CLINTON—First the judge recused himself and now the district attorney general’s office has been recused in a homicide case filed against an Oak Ridge man after a fatal crash in the crowded parking lot of Midtown Community Center after fireworks on July 4, 2015.

Both recusals were because of liens filed by the defendant, Lee Harold Cromwell, 66. The recusals mean another judge has already been appointed, and another DA will have to be appointed. A lien is a claim that one person owes something to another person.

Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Donald R. Elledge recused himself during a June 3 arraignment because of an $8 million lien filed against him by Cromwell.

“It was upsetting that he filed a frivolous lien against me,” Elledge said Monday. “I’m going to do everything I can legally, morally, and ethically to prosecute him criminally and civilly to the full extent of the law.”

Then, during a rescheduled arraignment on Monday, defense attorney James K. Scott asked for Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark and the DA’s office to also be recused. That was because of liens that Cromwell filed against the DA and another member of his office in “misplaced mindset” in a “misguided effort, out of desperation, to advocate for his innocence without the knowledge or advice of counsel,” Scott said in a motion to recuse. [Read more…]