Tampa, Florida - U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich today sentenced Wayne St. Aubyn Smith (50, Parrish), a/k/a Wayne Smith El-Bey, to 3 years and 10 months in federal prison for attempting to file a false lien against a federal judge. A federal jury found him guilty on July 19, 2017.
According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, in May 2015, Smith filed a lawsuit against several New Jersey officials in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, claiming that his constitutional rights had been violated. However, Smith failed to pay the fee required to file a lawsuit in federal court. United States District Judge Jose L. Linares was assigned to the case. Judge Linares issued an order instructing Smith on how to file for indigent status to waive his filing fee and dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice. After several rounds of filings claiming that Judge Linares was violating his constitutional rights, Judge Linares denied Smith’s motion to proceed in forma pauperis.
On Dec. 21, 2016, Smith attempted to record three separate liens against several individuals at the Manatee County Clerk’s Office. One of the documents claimed that Judge Linares owed Smith $750,000 for violating his constitutional rights. Furthermore, Smith claimed an interest in all of Judge Linares’s real and personal property and his checking and savings accounts up to the amount of $750,000. The other two documents were liens totaling more than $1 million against the State of Florida and several New Jersey government officials. The clerk’s office refused to record the documents.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Shauna S. Hale and Michael Gordon.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
