After nine months, the city of Sedona’s lawsuit against six residents who filed what the city described as ‘bogus liens” against the sitting members of the Sedona City Council and three city staffers has almost reached its conclusion. The city has settled with three of the defendants, anticipates a fourth settlement within the next few weeks and has moved for default judgment against the two remaining defendants.

The city’s complaint stated that on June 3, 2022, Shelley Evans filed a “notice of distress of bond” with the Coconino County Recorder’s office on behalf of herself, Donna Joy Varney, Charles and Alissa Tyler, Gayle Baingo and Theresa Vos, demanding that the named officials pay them $11.2 million on the grounds of 141 alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution. Evans filed a second notice on July 15 demanding an additional $1.11 million from Magistrate Judge Paul Schlegel and code enforcement officer Brian Armstrong.

The city’s lawsuit referred to the liens as “paper terrorism” and claimed that “defendants are members of a so-called ‘sovereign citizen’ group.” “These filings were nothing more than an attempt to bully, harass and intimidate these public officials,” the complaint stated.

Following the city’s action, the Tylers and Varney decided to settle with the city, and the Coconino County Superior Court entered stipulated judgments against them on Aug. 2, 2023. As conditions of the settlements, each paid negotiated damages of $1,000 and their liens will be stricken from the public record. The agreements also required that the defendants agree to refrain from similar conduct in the future and to make themselves available for deposition or subpoena in the city’s ongoing litigation against the remaining defendants.

The case was reassigned to La Paz County Superior Court under the jurisdiction of Marcus Kelley on July 20 “due to Coconino County Superior Court having a conflict in this matter,” presiding judge Dan R. Slaton stated.

Vos contacted the city’s outside counsel, Aaron Schepler, who is representing the city in the suit — as Christianson is a party to it — on Sept. 25, 2023, to inquire about the possibility of a settlement. Christianson said on Jan. 22 that he expected the Vos settlement to be finalized in the coming weeks.

Gayle Baingo

The plaintiffs filed an application for entry of default against the remaining defendants on Sept. 21, 2023, and on Jan. 4, the city moved for default judgment against Baingo, seeking damages of $1,000 apiece for each of the eight named plaintiffs, $2,760.50 in fees and $229.24 in costs, as well as a declaration that the “notice of distress” was invalid and the expungement of the notice from the public record.

“The so-called notice of distress was a groundless, invalid lien, which Baingo and her cohorts filed for an improper purpose — namely to harass plaintiffs,” the city’s motion stated. “For the reasons set forth in the complaint, plaintiffs are entitled to the requested relief.”

Baingo has not responded to the city’s suit and previously attempted to refuse service of the complaint on April 27, 2023.

“I noticed a woman come in the house from the backyard,” the process server’s deposition stated. “I walked back up and knocked and saw a small group of people following her into the house from the back door. The woman opened the door but left the security gate closed. I said ‘Gayle?’ And she said ‘Yes?” I told her I was an officer of the court and had documents to serve her. She said she was not going to accept them. I said I have to legally leave these here for her and I dropped them on her front porch right in front of the door and walked away.

“As I was nearing the car, a white man, 6 feet 2 inches, 45, light brown receding hair, approached me with the papers in his hand yelling that this was a case of mistaken identity. I said she answered to Gayle and he said that this was not the Gayle I was looking for, but there are so many more Gayles in the world. He continued to yell and scream at me while filming me with his phone. He threw the papers on my car and I threw them back into Gayle’s yard multiple times. I got in my car and he changed his yelling to the legality of the papers and other crazy rantings. I threw the papers in the yard and drove off. Last I saw he was still yelling at me and kicking the papers into the street.

“I spoke to a police officer I happened upon a few minutes later and he suggested I have the county serve the rest as they have had many problems with this group. The green bag on the door was an indicator to the people that were coming to the meeting. I believe all of the people I was to serve were there and saw me, so me continuing to serve would be fruitless. The man yelling at me matches a picture I found of Charles Tyler.”

Shelley Evans

On Jan. 12, 2024, the city also moved for default judgment against Evans.

“A default judgment is appropriate because the Evans defendants have failed to appear or otherwise defend this action,” the motion stated. “Following service by publication, the Evans defendants did not file an answer or otherwise respond to the complaint … As of today’s date, the Evans defendants have still not responded to plaintiff’s complaint.”

The city is seeking $5,000 in statutory damages from Evans for each of the eight plaintiffs named in Evan’s first demand, for a total of $40,000, in addition to $2,760.50 in attorney’s fees and $1,278.74 in costs. The motion noted that the city has so far incurred a total of $16,563 in attorney’s fees in the case. The motion also seeks additional damages of $6,000 apiece for Schlegel and Armstrong stemming from Evans’ second demand.

Process servers made 15 attempts to reach Evans at both her work and home addresses between May 11 and July 3.

One reported on July 1 that he “spoke to a woman who refused to state her name [Caucasian, brown hair, approximately in her 50s, approximately 5-foot-5 and approximately 130 pounds]. I asked her if Shelley Evans was there and she stated that she was not and that ‘she doesn’t know what to tell me.’ She then proceeded to go back inside and shut the door immediately behind her.”

Christianson said that the city is waiting for the court to grant the motions for default judgment, which, combined with a settlement with Vos, “would then mostly conclude the litigation.”