A Georgia homeowner was arrested and charged with criminal trespass after attempting to move back into her home, which was being occupied by an alleged squatter.
‘I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in deplorable conditions. While this woman, this squatter slept in my home,’ Loletha Hale told WSB-TV Atlanta.
On December 9, Clayton County police and Sheriff’s deputies were called to the home on Livingston Drive after Hale tried to regain access.
A deputy, captured on body camera footage, advised Hale to consider the alleged squatter’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 deputy said.
The dispute began in August when Hale discovered the alleged squatter, Sakemeyia Johnson, in the home and contacted police.
Authorities cited Johnson under Georgia’s new Squatter Reform Act.
However, Clayton County Magistrate Court Judge Latrevia Lates-Johnson ruled that Johnson wasn’t a squatter, as she was related to a previously evicted tenant’s partner.
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