CLAYTON — Brian Boettler was trying to sell his Ladue home earlier this spring when a surprise lien turned up on his property. Two people he didn’t know had filed a notice with St. Louis County claiming they were the rightful owners of his multimillion-dollar Tudor-style manor on Litzsinger Road.
Without clearing the challenge, Boettler couldn’t sell his property. “The craziest thing is we received no letter, nothing, from the county. Our title company never received any paperwork,” Boettler said.
“There was no way to even tell unless you went and physically did a title lien search.” Boettler, it ends up, owns one of the St. Louis County homes targeted by a couple who contend they are part of a private nation and not governed by U.
S. laws. The document they filed with the county recorder, they said, follows “maritime law” and grants them ownership of eight properties and a 2022 Honda Accord.
Ronnie Ramael Todd and Janae Rocquel Motley filed the notarized document Dec. 6 with the county recorder. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the county asked a judge to render Todd and Motley’s notice invalid.
But Todd said he’s not a United States citizen, and he doesn’t recognize its laws. “They’re suing me, but I’m part of a foreign nation,” Todd said in a phone call Wednesday. “You can’t sue me because I’m not part of the United States.
” Motley and Todd, who also goes by Ramael El, identify as part of a group called the Moors. The Southern Poverty Law .