Accused squatter faces competency hearing in Las Vegas

Miguel Barraza was in a downtown Las Vegas courthouse, waiting to testify before a grand jury about accused squatter Thomas Benson, when his daughter got a phone call.

Barraza had hit a pedestrian with a car, she was told, and would be shot in the head if she didn’t pay $2,000.

Around the same time, someone called a property manager and said that if he returned to the Las Vegas condo he oversaw, he would be shot.

Prosecutors described the calls in court papers without saying who made them but noted that police showed up at the condo and encountered Benson.

Police and prosecutors have said that Benson, 56, follows “sovereign citizen” ideology, an anti-government movement whose adherents are known for financial scams, nonsensical court filings and occasional violence.

He was arrested in April on charges stemming from the alleged takeover of a bank-owned house in northwest Las Vegas. He since has been hit with more criminal charges and is scheduled to appear at a competency hearing Friday.

Moreover, his penchant for filing bizarre court papers, as chronicled in a Las Vegas Review-Journal story last fall, hasn’t stopped in recent months.

Benson issued a jurisdictional challenge in one of his criminal cases, writing he’s “one of the people of the republic of Nevada” and, according to Nevada law, “if the Judge of this court have (sic) a bar card, you cannot be a Judge in a court of record.”

He also has been issuing orders from a nonexistent court, including that he be released from jail and awarded more than $5 million in a lawsuit he filed against the state of Nevada, Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, the FBI, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Review-Journal, this reporter and others.

More charges

In the latest criminal case, involving the condo, Benson and two others were charged in May with conspiracy to commit a crime, housebreaking and unlawful re-entry.

After the property manager was threatened, police encountered Benson and others at the home, including a woman who had been evicted but was living there again, authorities said in court filings. State prosecutors said Benson “was discovered squatting” there.

Benson was appointed a public defender last month, despite not wanting one, and is being held in the Clark County Detention Center.

Deputy Public Defender Ashley Sisolak said she requested the competency hearing for her client because she “had concerns about his competency,” but she otherwise declined to comment.

‘Not a person’

As the RJ reported, Benson has said in court papers that he’s “not a person” and showed his “proof of life” with blue footprints.

He also sued for the bank-owned property in the northwest valley – a 2-acre spread with a guesthouse and 5,400-square-foot main house – and filed a lease for it the same day last year.

His associate Nana I Am — a mysterious figure who apparently lives in the Los Angeles area – was named as the landlord in the lease. In their lawsuit for the home, the pair sought $15 million and said Nana was suing on behalf of former owner Myles Catania, who told the RJ that he had never heard of Benson, Nana or the lawsuit.

The Catanias were evicted from the home months after losing it to foreclosure. They told the RJ that a man named Tom called to say they could come back for their stuff, but when they arrived, strangers were tossing the place.

Prosecutors allege the group included Benson. He was indicted on charges including theft, burglary and offering a false instrument for filing or recording.

Barraza was at the home too, but Benson “was pulling all the strings,” said Marilyn Caston, Barraza’s lawyer.

Caston was with her client at the Regional Justice Center on March 15 when his daughter received the threatening call. Police traced it to a burner phone, she said.

‘Ardent follower’

Before he was indicted, Benson sued the RJ, this reporter and several other defendants in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.

He alleged the newspaper and this reporter “used defamatory language accusing claimant of being ‘anti-government’ for enforcing law (sic) against corporate employees impersonating government employees.” He also wrote that he has never claimed to be a sovereign citizen.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office has said in court papers that Benson is “an ardent follower” of sovereign ideology and poses “a threat of both physical violence and economic harm.”

Maggie McLetchie, the RJ’s and this reporter’s attorney in the lawsuit, said her motions to dismiss the case are pending. She also joined a motion to declare Benson a “vexatious litigant,” or a litigator who, as she described it, abuses the process “for improper means.”

If that’s approved, Benson would need court approval to make filings in the case, she said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.