http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_4b092028-540b-11df-bb24-001cc4c03286.htmlJackiya D. Ford, 37, is accused of stealing a Lolo home - first by attempting to transfer the property deed over to herself, and then by physically moving in and changing the locks.
"Jackiya does not want to enter a plea because she does not recognize the state of Montana as the entity," said Paulette Ferguson, the public defender representing Ford.
Standing Master Brenda Desmond entered not guilty pleas on Ford's behalf.
Thursday's court hearing revealed little more of the ideology behind Ford's alleged acts, but a lawsuit she filed against county officials who stymied the deed transfer suggests a pronounced sense of entitlement.
In the lawsuit, Ford accuses officials of preventing her from filing her land patents with the county, of violating her birthright and of being unruly toward her. Ford, who said she is pregnant, is seeking compensation for "mental damage and scars due to duress and coorersion (sic) of all parties involved."
"I would like to be able to file my documents in the county recorder's office as well as be paid eighteen million dollars in damage by the county of Montana, Missoula," Ford wrote in the lawsuit.
Ford, who lived in California and Washington before moving to Montana, first came onto the radar of local law enforcement when she became disorderly in the Missoula County Attorney's Office and had to be removed, according to officials in the sheriff's office.
She filed a lawsuit against Dave Walrod and Tony Rio of the Missoula County Sheriff's Office, as well as Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, Deputy Missoula County Attorney Dori Brownlow and Chief Deputy Clerk and Recorder Debbe Merseal.
Merseal referred Ford to the Missoula County Attorney's Office in the first place, after the woman tried to have several certified deeds and patent documents re-recorded, but refused to give a reason for the request.
***
Ford also filed suit against Bob Paffhausen, who built and owns the home she moved into for several days. Paffhausen told authorities that the woman showed up to view his house as a prospective buyer.
After their initial meeting, Ford delivered paperwork claiming ownership of the house and all the land in a 20-mile radius around it, offering to drop the lawsuit only if Paffhausen paid her $900,000 in pure silver and gold.
On April 14, as the builder worked with the county attorney's office to remedy the situation, he received a call from NorthWestern Energy saying someone had reported a natural gas leak at the house. Paffhausen went to the house, where he found the locks and garage door codes had been changed and the windows covered up with paper.
Various notices were also posted on the doors saying no one should enter the house without consent of the "authority of our Lord and Savior Yahushua," who had given the house to Ford as a believer. Looking through an opening in the kitchen window, Paffhausen could see various personal belongings, including a rifle case leaning against the living room wall.
Paffhausen called authorities, and as sheriff's deputies were inspecting the home Ford came speeding down the street and pulled into the driveway. She told the deputies that she was a "sovereign citizen of the republic of America" and therefore officials had no authority over her. She said she owned the whole mountainside and that they were on private property.
***
At Thursday's arraignment hearing in Missoula District Court, Ford asked to have the criminal case transferred to U.S. District Court, where she filed the lawsuit against Missoula County, and asked for access to the jail's law library.
When Desmond read Ford her rights, she asked the standing judge to clarify.
"Question. Are these rights outside of the Constitution of the United States?" Ford asked.
She also asked to be released from jail, where she's in custody on $50,000 bail, and said she did not want to deliver her baby in a detention facility.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.
