Ted Visner Says He Will Use Deadly Force To Fight Fraudulent Eviction, Confusion Muddying Militia Support

Right now, Ted Visner is on a property in Isabella County, Michigan, ready to defend what he says is his property. Visner claims he will use deadly force if needed and asserts that he is fully aware that he could be executed where he stands when he raises arms against those who wish to evict him. Ted Visner stood before Isabella County District Court Judge Eric Janes on Friday as he was told that Bank of America had the right to seek an eviction order to remove Visner from his Fremont Road home, provided he has not appealed by next Monday.

The Blanchard, Michigan, man wears a “Don’t Tread On Me” hat in the video in which he calls himself a patriot and says that the “first shots of the revolution” are about to be fired in Isabella County, Michigan.

“Fixing our country is going to require sacrifice. Time. Lives. The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” Ted Visner, who once ran for Isabella County Sheriff, declared on his YouTube video. “I guess it’s going to start in Blanchard, Michigan.”

The video is shot in an unfinished room in the Blanchard home where he is hunkering down for an armed resistance, according to the Morning Sun. Isabella County officials reportedly told the Morning Sun that they know about Visner’s video, but that no eviction paperwork has come through yet. Visner asserts that the Morning Sun is also the enemy.

“The Mornning Sun newspaper: You are not welcome on or near our property,” Visner posted on Facebook. “Your stance in support of the criminal activities conducted by the county of Isabella places you firmly in that camp. Stay away.”

Visner’s Earlier Lawsuit Confusing Issues

Visner brought up disagreements with Isabella County that stemmed from a 2010 situation involving a completely separate home on East Walton Road in Lincoln Township. Ted says he was purchasing the property on a land contract. He says the loss of his earlier home demonstrates the corruption within the county.

Visner says that his old landlord, Shelly Sweet, who was a clerk for the Sheriff’s department, was cashing his checks, but failing to pay the mortgage. He says that the bank foreclosed on Sweet, but he had been current on his payment. Then, he says, while he and his wife Kathy Smith were out of town for a weekend, Sweet changed the locks on the home and sold his belongings.

“Although we were paying Sweet every month on the purchase of the property, she had not been paying the underlying mortgage and the home fell into foreclosure,” Visner told Salem News.“On a weekend Sweet knew that we would be out of town, she offered the contents of our home to her friends and coworkers at the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department, claiming we had abandoned the home. Many took her up on her free offer deal and took over $55,000 dollars worth of our personal property.”

Visner filed a lawsuit, but it was eventually dismissed by Isabella’s Chief Judge Paul H. Chamberlain. He was seeking $3.9 million in damages from Sweet and her boss Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski, among others in the department. Sweet claimed that she had a court order to go into the home. She claims she didn’t go through the eviction process because he had “vacated the home.” Visner missed his original deposition appointment in May, a timeline on Storify asserts.

Then, in June of 2012, Judge Chamberlain gave Visner until the end of the month to complete the deposition. Chamberlain originally sided with Visner, stating that a clerical error might have justified the fact that Visner missed the original deposition and allowed it to be rescheduled. Court documents indicate that Ted filed bankruptcy before his dealings went awry with Shelly Sweet. Reportedly, Visner did not file the proper documentation and failed to appear in court, so the judge ordered the home back to Sweet. Judge Chamberlain dismissed the lawsuit against the county employees in October 2012.

Visner’s Current Home Problems

During the course of the events at the former house, Visner says he retreated to his current home and began building an 8,000 square foot house. That house is still under construction on 15 acres in Blanchard, Michigan. The East Walton Road home he was buying from Sweet, according to Visner, is just the back story, though many media outlets are portraying the two homes as one. Visner says the confusion by the media and others has been intentional.

Visner also claims in a video posted Monday that the massive structure was being built to be used as a home for battered women and children. He said that in District Court Judge Eric Janes’ courtroom on Friday, he was told that Bank of America can evict him. He says that there is eviction fraud happening in Michigan and that this fraud is what he is standing up against. Visner said that the Michigan Supreme Court is allowing Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) to fraudulently foreclose on Michigan homeowners. A couple of years back, Komo News addressed the MERS foreclosure controversy that Visner tries to explain on Monday in the video below.

“I will not be evicted from my property, and, when I say that, what I mean is I will use all appropriate force to defend my property,” Tim stated. “This is the start, folks. I would imagine that they’ll show up with a SWAT team, bunch of armed men and it’ll go down like the Bundy Ranch – only with no opposition, and I will be executed by the same sheriff’s department that stole a different house in 2010.”

“I don’t know what to say other than I won’t leave this property without a fight and I will not be evicted from this property and that will lead to my execution, quite assuredly,” Visner stated.

He says that he contacted the Attorney General, but that the “AG prohibits complaints of police misconduct and civil rights being violated.”

Visner also says that contact he made with the ACLU remains unacknowledged.

Patriot Groups Divided

Visner’s video is getting a great deal of attention in militia and patriot groups on social media, but the groups are divided. On Monday, Michigan Three Percenters, which itself is an anti-government group, according to some reports, stated publicly that they do not back Visner and are asking fellow militia members and patriots not to support his purported stand off.

“After digging into Ted Visner and his claims, I am asking everyone to not get involved. We cannot give him credibility at this time.”

Visner claims that the Michigan Three Percenters are not real patriots and are also working against him. Visner said that the group infiltrated one of his meetings and photographed everyone there.

“The alleged III%ers that showed up tried to get me to meet them off my property. Then they took pictures of everyone that was here today that they could see, LOL. Sound like good patriots to you?”

The Three Percenters Club Michigan posted an update just before midnight on Monday evening. Allegedly, a representative from the Constitutional patriot group said, “Ted would not show us proof of his claim. He in fact had due process by way of a 21-day right to appeal. He has not paid his mortgage for years,” and added that the group saw no actual Constitutional violation in Visner’s eviction. The group issued a “stand down for now.”

History Of Fighting For Beliefs

Visner was at the center of another controversy earlier this year, as Isabella County altered its trial policy to include the prohibition of cameras or recording devices in the county’s courtroom. Chamberlain, the judge who dismissed Visner’s lawsuit, told Central Michigan Life that the policy was in part prompted by Ted Visner uploading recordings of courtroom activities onto YouTube.

“It’s a policy they intend to enforce like law,” Visner said this past spring. “The enforcement part comes with a contempt of court charge, which is a crime. So Paul Chamberlain is legislating from the bench essentially.”

Ted Visner has a history of standing up for issues that are important to him, but whether he will use deadly force to defend the property he feels entitled to or stand down (as Monday’s video seems to indicate) is certainly a story to follow.

[Image via YouTube]