Dyson Wants $50 Million

A slander of title lawsuit has been filed against a member of a "freeman" group from Silver Lake.

Karen Kay Dyson is the defendant in a lawsuit filed in Kosciusko Circuit Court Thursday on behalf of five Times-Union employees.

Dyson, who calls herself a "freeman person," claims she was libeled by articles printed in the Times-Union during 1996. She is demanding $10 million each from Lane Hartle, Michael R. Williams, Norman Hagg, Gary Gerard and Dan Spalding - all employees of Reub Williams & Sons Inc., doing business as the Times-Union.

Dyson is a member of a separatist group which notified county authorities early last year that they had removed themselves from the jurisdication of the local, state and national governments. They formed their own court system.

News stories in the Times-Union reported existence of the group and Dyson's arrest by sheriff's deputies on a warrant charging her with failure to appear.

In July a document from Dyson claimed libel and demanded $10 million from each of the five newspaper employees "to be paid in gold minted coin or silver minted coin or the equivalent in Lawful Money of Account from our Treasury of these United States of America..." The payment was to be made within 10 days or the five risked "default," Dyson alleged.

After no payment was made, Dyson claimed the employees had "defaulted" and entered a "judgment" against them in her group's court.

In September, Dyson filed Uniform Commercial Code forms with the Indiana Secretary of State naming the five newspaper employees. She claimed each of five owed her $10 million and also claimed to have liens against real estate owned by the five as well as liens against specific personal property.

In October Dyson filed liens against the five in the Kosciusko County recorder's office. She claimed to have a "court judgment" totaling $50 million against the newspaper employees.

The suit against Dyson states, "no court of any competent jurisdiction, state or federal, has entered any judgment against any of the plaintiffs, individually or as a group, in favor of the defendant (Dyson)."

The suit asks that the liens recorded by Dyson be stricken from state and local records. The plaintiffs also seek to recover actual damages and costs, attorney fees and compensatory damages from Dyson. The plaintiffs further ask the court to issue an injunction permanently restraining Dyson from filing any further liens.

Also named in the complaint are Alice Anglin, in her official capacity as Kosciusko County recorder, and Sue Anne Gilroy, in her official capacity as secretary of state.

The lawsuit seeks no monetary damages from Anglin and Gilroy; it simply asks that they be enjoined from accepting any other documents from Dyson such as the ones previously recorded.