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Exclusive: Cromwell, co-defendants sentenced to 20-50 years for fraudulent liens

Posted at 2:38 pm June 30, 2018
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a hearing in criminal court in Nashville on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Oak Ridge resident Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, was sentenced on 28 counts of forgery and filling fraudulent liens during a criminal court hearing in Nashville on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

NASHVILLE—Five East Tennessee men who have been identified as “sovereign citizens,” including one from Oak Ridge and another from Clinton, were sentenced to 20-50 years in prison on Wednesday after filing fraudulent liens worth hundreds of millions of dollars against public officials, law enforcement officers, and others.

The five defendants—who included Austin Gary Cooper, 69, of Clinton, and Lee Harold Cromwell, 68, of Oak Ridge—had earlier been convicted of more than 200 counts of forgery and filing unlawful liens. That was at the end of a six-day trial in Davidson County Criminal Court in Nashville in late April.

Their sentencing hearing was Wednesday. It lasted more than three hours.

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Filed Under: Anderson County, Courts, Courts, Davidson County, For Members, Front Page News, Nashville, Oak Ridge, Police and Fire, Premium Content, Slider, Tennessee Tagged With: 20th Judicial District, A. A. Birch Criminal Justice Building, Anderson County Criminal Court, Austin Gary Cooper, Cheryl Blackburn, Christopher Alan Hauser, Dave Clark, Davidson County Criminal Court, Don Elledge, Elaine Cuthbertson, Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorism Task Force, filing fraudulent liens, forgery, forgery of more than $250000, fraudulent liens, Heather Brackett, James Michael Usinger, James Robinson, Jared Mollenkof, Lee Harold Cromwell, Lesli Oliver Wright, Mark Irwin, Midtown Community Center, Nashville public defender's office, Pamela Auble, paper terrorism, Roger Moore, Ronald James Lyons, Sarah King, sentencing hearing, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General, sovereign citizen, sovereign citizen ideology, sovereign citizens, TBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tony Thompson, unlawful liens, vehicular homicide, Wendy Hamil

DA: Cromwell, other ‘sovereign citizens’ convicted in fraudulent liens case

Posted at 4:26 pm May 3, 2018
By John Huotari 1 Comment

Lee Harold Cromwell, 67, the Oak Ridge man convicted of vehicular homicide in a fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after July 4 fireworks two years ago, was sentenced to 12 years in prison during a hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 19, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today

Lee Harold Cromwell, the Oak Ridge man convicted of vehicular homicide in a fatal parking lot crash at Midtown Community Center after July 4 fireworks in Oak Ridge in 2015, was sentenced to 12 years in prison during a hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 19, 2017. In a separate case, Cromwell was convicted this week in Nashville along with four other defendants in a fraudulent liens case, and he will be sentenced June 27. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 8:30 a.m. May 4.

Five “sovereign citizens,” including Lee Cromwell of Oak Ridge, were convicted of more than 200 counts in Nashville this week in a case where the defendants had been accused of filing fraudulent liens against local and state officials in East Tennessee, including judges, prosecutors, and police officers in Anderson County, an official said Thursday.

Before the convictions, seven sovereign citizens from Anderson County had been charged in February 2017 with forgery and filing liens without a legal basis, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said in a press release Thursday. Those charges came after an investigation that had been requested by Clark and was conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Many of the cases were tried in Nashville, and a jury returned a verdict this week of guilty on all counts, Clark said. Clark and his wife were both victims of the fraudulent liens, so Clark had requested another district attorney general to prosecute the case.

“As the liens were filed electronically at the Secretary of State’s Office in Nashville, it made sense to have the defendants indicted and prosecuted in Davidson County,” Clark said. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anderson County, Courts, Courts, Front Page News, Oak Ridge, Police and Fire, Slider Tagged With: Anderson County, Austin Gary Cooper, Christopher Alan Hauser, Dave Clark, Davidson County, Federal Bureau of Investigation, filing liens without a legal basis, forgery, forgery over the value of $250000, fraudulent liens, Glenn Funk, James Michael Usinger, Lee Harold Cromwell, Ronald James Lyons, Seventh Judicial District Attorney General, sovereign citizens, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

Ten arrested in fraudulent lien investigation have filed about $2 billion in liens, state records say

Posted at 1:07 pm March 6, 2017
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, that a year-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a 320-count indictment, and 10 people were arrested, including seven Anderson County residents, on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records. (Photo courtesy TBI)

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, that a year-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a 320-count indictment, and 10 people were arrested, including some Anderson County residents, on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records. (Photo courtesy TBI)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:05 p.m.

The 10 men arrested in February after a year-long investigation into fraudulent liens filed in East Tennessee have filed about $2 billion worth of liens against local officials and law enforcement officers, as well as local, state, and federal agencies—and others, including corporations and law firms, according to state records released Monday.

The liens filed by the 10 men have a range of collateral values, but many of them are for $4 million, $8 million, and $12 million. The liens have been filed against county mayors and sheriffs, police chiefs and officers, and prosecutors and judges, among others. At least some of the liens are alleged to be fraudulent.

A summary of the liens, listed in spreadsheet format, was released Monday by the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett in response to a request from Oak Ridge Today.

A lien is a claim that one person owes something to another. Liens can be filed online in Tennessee, although filing a fraudulent lien is a criminal offense.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that the actions of the 10 men are common within the sovereign citizen ideology.

Sovereign citizens don’t recognize governmental authority or law enforcement, they reject the concept of U.S. citizenship, and they have sometimes been associated with violence, according to state and local officials.

“When arrested or challenged, they typically try to bog down the criminal justice system with nonsensical court filings or to intimidate or complicate their legal cases by filing baseless liens against everyone involved,” Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said in February.

The East Tennessee liens first started gaining widespread attention after Anderson County Criminal and Circuit Judge Don Elledge had to recuse himself last year from a vehicular homicide case involving Lee Harold Cromwell, 67, of Oak Ridge, because of liens that Cromwell had filed against Elledge.

TBI special agents began their investigation at the request of Clark in May 2016. That was about the time that Elledge learned that Cromwell had filed a lien against him.

The TBI said the report it received was that, over a period of several years, multiple people from East Tennessee had filed Uniform Commercial Code liens and financing statements with the Tennessee Secretary of State’s office in Nashville. The liens were filed against dozens of different people across the state, encumbering their property, the TBI said. The victims who had these liens filed against them included people employed by government agencies, police officers and attorneys, and elected and appointed officials, including city and county mayors, sheriffs, and members of the judiciary.

The case was ultimately assigned to a special prosecutor with the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office. (Nashville and the Secretary of State’s Office, where the liens were filed, are in Davidson County). On January 24, the Davidson County Grand Jury returned indictments charging 11 people with a combined total of 320 counts of two charges: draw a lien without a legal basis, which is a Class E felony, and forgery of $250,000 or more, a Class A felony.

The 10 men arrested on February 16 were arrested by teams that included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The arrests in Anderson, Cocke, Greene, and Knox counties also included officers from other state and local law enforcement agencies.

Here is the collateral value of the liens filed by those arrested last month, according to the records released Monday by the Tennessee Secretary of State. Half of those arrested in February live in Anderson County.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Front Page News, Government, Police, Police and Fire, Slider Tagged With: Austin Gary Cooper, Christopher Alan Hauser, Dave Clark, fraudulent liens, George Edward Williams, James Michael Usinger, John Jeffrey Williams, Kenneth Ray Foust, Lee Harold Cromwell, Michael Robert Birdsell, Ronald James Lyons, sovereign citizens, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Victor Douglas Bunch

Seven ‘sovereign citizens’ who filed fraudulent liens arrested in Anderson County

Posted at 4:35 pm February 16, 2017
By John Huotari 1 Comment

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, that a year-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a 320-count indictment, and 10 people were arrested, including seven Anderson County residents, on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records. (Photo courtesy TBI)

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced in Nashville on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, that a year-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a 320-count indictment and 10 people were arrested, including seven Anderson County residents, on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records. (Photo courtesy TBI)

 

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

Seven “sovereign citizens” from Anderson County, including Lee Harold Cromwell, have been indicted and arrested on charges related to filing fraudulent liens against local officials, law enforcement officers, and public employees, authorities said Thursday.

The sovereign citizens were arrested Wednesday by teams that included agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, according to a press release from Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark in Anderson County.

The TBI said a year-long investigation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in a 320-count indictment, and 10 people were arrested on charges of unlawfully filing liens and making false entries into records. Multiple other state, county, and local law enforcement agencies also participated in the arrests.

Dave Clark

Dave Clark

TBI special agents began their investigation at the request of Clark in May 2016. That was about the time that Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge learned that Cromwell had filed a lien against the judge, causing Elledge to recuse himself from a vehicular homicide and aggravated assault case filed against Cromwell. The judge vowed to do everything he could legally, morally, and ethically—both criminally and civilly—to prosecute Cromwell to the full extent of the law.

Elledge said he discussed the liens filed against him by Cromwell with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a federal task force, the Seventh District Attorney General’s Office (the Anderson County DA), and local legislators. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Anderson County, Anderson County, Federal, Front Page News, Government, Knox County, Knox County, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge, Oliver Springs, Oliver Springs, Police and Fire, Police and Fire, Roane County, Roane County, Slider, State, Tennessee Tagged With: 20th Judicial District Attorney General's Office, Austin Gary Cooper, Christopher Alan Hauser, Dave Clark, Don Elledge, FBI, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, Federal Bureau of Investigation, fraudulent liens, George Edward Williams, James Michael Usinger, James Scott, John Jeffrey Williams, Kenneth Ray Foust, Lee Harold Cromwell, liens, Michael Robert Birdsell, Paul Summers, Ronald James Lyons, sovereign citizens, TBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tony Craighead, Vickie Bannach, Victor Douglas Bunch

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Public Notice: Comment period extended for Draft EA for Lithium Processing Facility at Y-12

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AVAILABILITY OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE LITHIUM PROCESSING FACILITY AT THE Y-12 … [Read More...]

Availability of the Final Environmental Assessment for the Oak Ridge Enhanced Technology and Training Center (ORETTC) (DOE/EA-2144), Finding of No Significant Impact, and Wetland Statement of Findings

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