Criminal Slander Of Title Among Charges Facing Crackpot Who Found Vacant Lakefront Pool Home In Foreclosure, Filed Adverse Possession Affidavit To Claim Ownership & Moved In

In Meanasha, Wisconsin, the Appleton Post-Crescent reports:

• A Fox Cities woman is facing criminal charges after she and her adult son moved without permission into a vacant lakefront home in Menasha.
  
  Marsha L. Anthony, 45, is charged with criminal slander of title as a party to a crime(1) and misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal damage to property.
  
  According to the criminal complaint, Menasha police were called to the residence at 822 Emily St. on Aug. 12 for a report of open windows and music at the residence on Little Lake Butte des Morts where no one was supposed to be living. When an officer arrived, he found the electricity and water had been turned on and a lock bolt used to secure a doorknob was lying on the floor.
  
  When Anthony arrived at the residence, she questioned the authority of officers to be there and showed them a notarized affidavit of adverse possession, which she claimed gave her legal rights to the property’s title. Anthony’s 24-year-old son also was living at the residence. The son has not been charged with a crime.
  
  During the course of a month-long investigation, police learned that Anthony’s 24-year-old son worked as a subcontractor for a Minnesota-based inspection firm and was given the keys to the residence to inspect it as part of a foreclosure action by Wells Fargo Bank.
  
  The chief executive officer of the company confirmed the son had been given keys to the residence to conduct an inspection and had not returned the keys. The company sent a second inspector to the property, who reported he was confronted by a man matching Schroeder’s description who threatened “to release the dogs on him,” according to the complaint.
  
  Police had asked Anthony and her son to voluntarily vacate the property several times during the investigation, but they refused. The son voluntarily went to speak to police on Sept. 13 after he and his mother got into an argument. He told officers he no longer wanted to live at the residence. He said his mother was with him the day he went to inspect the residence.
  
  She called it her “dream home” and said she always wanted a home on the lake with a pool, the complaint states. He told police he moved into the home on Aug. 9, one or two days after his mother gained access to the property by opening an unlocked patio door. He said he and his mother both had poor credit and had lost their previous place.
  
  Anthony is due back in Winnebago County Court on Oct. 18. If convicted, she faces 11 years, six months imprisonment and $30,000 in fines. Her son has not been charged with a crime.

Source: Woman, 45, faces charges for occupying Menasha foreclosure (Son given keys to inspect residence).

(1) Section 943.60 of the Wisconsin Statutes provides in part:

• 943.60  Criminal slander of title.
  
  (1) Any person who submits for filing, entering or recording any lien, claim of lien, lis pendens, writ of attachment, financing statement or any other instrument relating to a security interest in or title to real or personal property, and who knows or should have known that the contents or any part of the contents of the instrument are false, a sham or frivolous, is guilty of a Class H felony.