Squatter alleging wrongful arrest files lawsuit

YEMASSEE: Man claims land occupied with signs lambasting town and county officials as his own.

By Stephanie Broadbent
Carolina Morning News

A Yemassee man charged with resisting arrest by dumping urine and paint over his body filed a $10 million lawsuit last week against the town, mayor, police department and Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

Shemuel Nahum Ben Yisrael -- widely known for his outrageous signs blasting police and government leaders as "devils" -- claimed that his Dec. 9, 2000, arrest was unlawful, that he was illegally imprisoned, defamed on police radio, emotionally distressed and assaulted by police who were trespassing on his property.

Yisrael was arrested after a police officer saw him possibly trespassing. The officer tried to stop him, but Yisrael ran from him, "barricaded" himself in his home and refused to come out, according to a police report.

As deputies and police converged outside, Yisrael prepared himself for arrest by pouring yellow paint and urine on himself. Once police got inside, they cuffed him anyway, charged him with resisting arrest and took him to the Beaufort County Detention Center.

It wasn't the only time Yisrael has caused a stink in the town.

He said he's been arrested about 20 times, mostly for trespassing on property that he claims he owns by virtue of squatting on it for the past 10 years.

Yemassee Police Chief Sammy Rivers said Yisrael keeps buckets or bottles of waste around his property and dumps it on himself each time police come to arrest him.

"I can walk up to him right now and he'd run in the house and pour paint, urine and doo doo on him, whatever he can get his hands on," Rivers said. "I try not to have no dealings with him."

Yisrael said he pours his "stuff" over his body because he believes all of the arrests are unlawful.

He claims that old railroad property near land he owns was abandoned and that keeping his possessions on it for 10 years gives him the right to claim it as his own.

"I just started occupying the land as far as I can in any direction," he said.

But officials say the land is the town's, that it owns bordering property and has won numerous court rulings in the case. They've arrested and ticketed Yisrael numerous times for trespassing and for littering the land with his belongings.

Yisrael has fought back with more lawsuits and more signs.

He painted the names of "dangerous jurors" and "devil police officers" on signs dotting his land. One calls the mayor "Devil Fool Stupid," another blasts a "She Devil Judge," and another proclaims, "Finance Terrorism! My tax payments pay salaries of devil police."

Special Circuit Judge Thomas Kemmerlin Jr. ordered Yisrael -- who changed his name from James Christopher -- to cover or take down the signs naming jurors and those calling police officers or judges satanic names. He also ordered him to remove his belongings from the town's property.

Attorney Roberts Vaux, who is representing the town, said some of the signs have been allowed to remain up. He even had a photograph of one, directed at the prosecutor, blown up and framed for a Christmas gift to the prosecutor.

"Sol. Randolph Murdaugh III passed bar exam by drinking more than anyone else," it says.

Some of Yisrael's other alleged actions haven't been as funny.

In one case he was charged with simple assault for throwing "some type of water believed to be urine" at a police officer outside town hall, according to one arrest warrant.

But Yisrael claims it's the police who are abusing him.

In his lawsuit, filed Monday, he claims police assaulted him the night of his Dec. 9, 2000, arrest by chasing him in a Yemassee Police Department patrol car, that the "assault" caused him to "be in fear and barricade himself in his home." When the policeman banged on his door and shouted that he was under arrest, it was defamation, he claims.

When the policeman radioed for backup, Yisrael claims he was called "a dangerous criminal," which he claims is slander. Seeing deputies arrive in patrol cars at his home with spotlights caused "an extreme state of emotional distress."

Police entering his home to arrest him were trespassing, the lawsuit claims, the arrest was unlawful and putting him in a patrol car and jail was unlawful imprisonment. He claims he was libeled and maliciously prosecuted at his April 12 trial.

His proof?

Before the trial could reach a jury, he said the judge issued a directed verdict of not guilty of resisting arrest.

The prosecutor who handled the case could not be reached Friday and the town's police chief and attorney said they were not familiar with the details of that particular trial because the alleged offense happened before either one began working for the town.

Vaux said he just received a copy of the lawsuit Friday and hadn't had a chance to read it.

"I don't think it's going to go anywhere," he said.

Yisrael said it's the first of many lawsuits he plans to file against the police, town and Sheriff's Office. He said he'll seek more money for every other time he's been arrested.

In addition to the $10 million he's asking for in court, he wants to be reimbursed for lost wages and is seeking punitive damages.

[23 June 2002]