‘Moorish National’ Loses Appeal Of House-Squatting Conviction
Dave Stafford  for Indiana Lawyer

November 22, 2016 

A man who identifies as a “Moorish National” sovereign citizen immune from state and federal law had no luck persuading the Indiana Court of Appeals to overturn his convictions arising from his occupancy of an Indianapolis house that was being prepared for sale after foreclosure.

Wendell Brown, also known as Menes Ankh El, was found squatting in a home on West 39th Street in Indianapolis in April 2012, when a listing agent drove by on an occasional inspection of the property. Ankh El told the agent he had purchased the property, at which time the agent called police.

Ankh El told police he had documents proving his ownership of the home, and he later produced a self-made identification card and a deed he had drafted entitled “Freehold in Deed” giving him possession of the property. Police arrested him and found he had moved himself and many possessions into the house.

A jury convicted Ankh El on all five counts — Class C felonies burglary and forgery, Class D felony theft, and misdemeanors trespass and driving while suspended. The theft and trespass convictions were merged as lesser-included offenses and he was sentenced to four years, with two served in community corrections and two suspended to probation.

The Court of Appeals affirmed Tuesday, rejecting much of Ankh El’s appeal based on Moorish National sovereign citizen arguments that courts and laws of the state didn’t apply to him. Ankh El “argues that he is ‘a member of the ‘sovereignty’ and is ‘not bound by general words in statutes,” Judge Patricia Riley wrote for the panel. “Instead, ‘[a]s a sentient being,’ he claims that he is ‘governed by common law and [has] the natural right to do anything which [his] inclinations may suggest, if it be not evil in itself, and in no way impairs the rights of others. … We find no merit in (his) rambling contentions.”

The panel held that the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction over Ankh El; the denial of his request to retain “Consuls from the Moorish American Nation” was proper because they were not licensed to practice law in Indiana; the evidence was sufficient; the charging information was not defective for listing his given name of Wendell Brown; and the court did not exhibit prejudice resulting in fundamental error by preventing him from presenting an adverse-possession defense.

Ankh El told the agent and police “that he was the owner of the property, which he had recently purchased for $250,000 … created a deed purporting to claim the Property as his own, and he filed this homemade document with the Marion County Recorder,” Riley wrote in Wendell Brown a/k/a Menes Ankh El v. State of Indiana,
49A05-1311-CR-550. “He also hung a flag on the front gate, changed all of the locks, and posted multiple signs warning against trespassing” after moving in with his possessions. “… [I]t is apparent (he) intended to steal the Property from its owner(s).”

The Evansville-Vanderburgh County Traffic Safety Partnership conducted a sobriety checkpoint on Wednesday, November 23, 2016 near the intersection of S. Green River Road and Tippecanoe Drive. A total of 200 vehicles were diverted from S. Green River Road into the checkpoint, which ran from 10:00pm to 1:30am.

Three drivers were arrested at the checkpoint (shown below). Deputies and officers assigned to the perimeter of the checkpoint made two additional arrests, one for Operating while Habitual Traffic Violator and another on Failure to Appear warrants. A total of 14 citations were issued for license and moving violations.

Law enforcement officers from the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office and the Evansville Police Department staffed last night’s checkpoint. Funding for local sobriety checkpoint operations is provided by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) through a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

ARRESTED:

Christopher Shawn Helm, 48, of Evansville. Operating a Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated with a BAC of .15% of More as a Class A Misdemeanor, Operating a Motor Vehicle while Intoxicated as a Class A Misdemeanor.

Javon Gass, 18, of Evansville. Receiving Stolen Firearm as a Level 6 Felony, Dealing Marijuana as a Class A Misdemeanor, Carrying a Handgun without a Permit as a Class A Misdemeanor.

Vashon Deryon Sherman, 27, of Evansville. Operating while Habitual Traffic Violator as a Level 6 Felony

Presumption of Innocence Notice: The fact that a person has been arrested or charged with a crime is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Errors Lead To Reversal Of Veteran’s involuntary Commitment

Olivia Covington for wwwtheindianalawyer.com

A trial court’s order mandating the involuntary commitment of a veteran has been vacated after the Indiana Court of Appeals found that the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to follow proper legal protocol in serving documents and did not prove that the veteran posed a risk to himself or others.

M.E., an army veteran living in Marion, has a well-established diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. In March 2016, Police officers brought M.E. to the Veterans Affairs hospital, and in April, the Department of Veterans Affairs Northern Indiana Health Care System filed an application for emergency detention with the Grant Circuit Court, which granted the application the same day.

Shortly thereafter, the NIHCS filed a petition for regular commitment with a physician’s statement attached, but those documents were not served to M.E. or his counsel. The trial court issued a commitment hearing order April 7, scheduled a hearing for April 12, a notice of rights and procedures and a mental illness summons. Also on April 7, M.E. signed a waiver of right to be present at his commitment hearing.

However, M.E.’s counsel did not learn of the documents until a day later when the VA’s counsel called him, so counsel had to request that the documents filed with the court be sent to him, and the hearing was continued to April 20.

At the hearing, Dr. Masood Kahn, a staff inpatient psychiatrist at the hospital, testified that M.E. had a history of hallucinations, had been admitted to the acute mental health unit at least 31 other times and had been physically restrained in the past. But M.E. testified that he did not know why he had been taken to the hospital and also said he was capable of paying his rent and taking care of himself, despite his mental constraints. Regardless, the court issued an order of regular commitment finding him to be mentally ill, dangerous and gravely disabled, so M.E. appealed.

In the case of In the Matter of the Commitment of M.E. v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 27A02-1605-MH-987, M.E. argued that the VA failed to serve him with the documents it filed with the trial court, that the waiver he signed was invalid and that the involuntary commitment was not warranted because the V.A. failed to establish that he exhibited a grave disability or dangerousness to himself.

The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday, writing that a proof of service is required for all civil commitment cases, and the fact that M.E. appeared at the hearing with counsel is insufficient to prove service.

“Indeed, the individual and his counsel may have learned of the hearing through purely serendipitous circumstances, which is precisely what occurred in the present case,” the appellate court wrote.

Further, the court wrote that M.E.’s waiver was invalid because “any waiver presented to and signed by an individual who has been involuntarily detained, and is alleged by the VA to be mentally ill, cannot be valid.”

Finally, the appellate court wrote that because Dr. Khan had testified in court that it had been three years since M.E. had been physically restrained and that he had provided no facts as to how M.E. may be dangerous, the doctor had not proven that M.E.’s behavior constitutes a substantial risk that he would harm himself or others. Additionally, the Court of Appeals agreed with M.E. that there was no clear and convincing evidence to establish a grave disability.