Squatter who took over $2.3 million mansion returns to home after short jail term
A squatter who lived in an expansive $2.3 million mansion for months has returned to the home after being thrown in jail over her occupation of the property.
40-year-old Tameike Goode claimed squatter's rights when she took over the mansion in Bethesda, Maryland, where she is alleged to have also posed as a financial advisor on bankruptcy to her followers.
Goode was eventually charged with trespass and burglary for moving into the home in July last year, spending less than two weeks in jail, according to The New York Post.
Her trespassing onto the property was brought to law enforcement's attention months after she moved in by 19-year-old neighbor and law student Ian Chen.
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After her short stint behind bars, Chen told The Baltimore Sun: “Less than two weeks of being incarcerated, Tameika Goode is back in the house.”
Chen later said to WBFF-TV News, after discovering Goode had returned on February 2 this month, that so-called 'squatters rights' need to be reformed.
This is a loose term for implicit tenants' rights that vary from state to state, making it difficult to evict people from properties they have occupied for some time. Typically, this length is at least five years of occupation.
Chen said: “I feel they should be a lot more proactive. I am honestly shocked this hasn’t been fixed 10, 20 years ago, and that this problem has been going on, especially recently, in every community across the state, whether it’s in rural counties in our western panhandle or suburban neighborhoods in Washington and Baltimore.”
Goode's lawyer even admitted that his client had 'done her research' before moving into the luxury home, telling The Baltimore Sun: “She found out that a certain property was under the control of a certain group — there was a title issue."
They continued: “Due to the title issue, she was able to assume the property under squatter rights," adding: “It’s not a particular squatter right. But there are rights known as squatter’s rights.”
Shortly after moving back into the foreclosed mansion, she was arrested again on February 10 after Chen called the police, according to The Daily Mail. According to reports, many of her possessions had been piled up outside the home when she returned.
Chen said it was 'mind-boggling' when he saw footage of her 'back in the house'.
Goode was eventually freed on a $5,000 bond after appearing at a Montgomery District Court hearing in a tan prison suit.
Law student Chen said the home's windows have been boarded up in the wake of her eviction and arrest, and the doors' locks have been changed to prevent her from returning to the property.
Chen said: “She [Goode] truly believed that she was entitled to this property. They really tried to hide and just fly under the radar and not think they were going to get caught.”
William Morgan