10 Years for Bogus Liens|on Judge and Prosecutor

HOUSTON (CN) - A Houston man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for filing bogus liens against a federal judge and prosecutor in retaliation for their involvement in his 2010 money laundering conviction.

Tyrone Eugene Jordan, 45, had a beef with retired U.S. District Judge Hayden Head, who presided in Corpus Christi, dating back to May 2010, when Head sentenced him to 63 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to smuggle aliens, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

He was also angry at Julie Hampton, of the Corpus Christi U.S. Attorney's Office, for prosecuting him in that case.

So after Jordan served his prison time, he found a novel way to get back at Head and Hampton. He filed fraudulent liens against them: one a UCC financing statement with the Texas Secretary of State claiming Hampton owed him $6.5 million, another against Hampton and one against Head.

Federal authorities were not amused. They arrested Jordan in March 2015 for filing the liens in violation of his probation.

U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in Houston sentenced Jordan to 10 years in federal prison on Friday. The sentence came after a jury found him guilty of three counts of retaliating against a federal or employee by false claim in July.

Prosecutors describe Jordan as a "sovereign citizen," part of an antigovernment movement whose adherents believe they don't have to pay taxes and they can choose which laws to obey, but his attorney disputes that characterization.

Richard Kuniansky told the Houston Chronicle that Jordan never claimed to be a sovereign citizen, that he never expected to make any money from the liens, but conceived that strategy in prison as a way to voice his displeasure with his money laundering sentence.

He called the retaliation case a "waste of judicial resources."

Kuniansky has already appealed Jordan's retaliation sentence to the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, court records show.

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