CHARLOTTE - Tuesday night, a judge found Ninti El-Bey guilty of breaking and entering and trespassing. But she says she’s going to continue to fight and appeal the guilty verdict.
Her case went to court after neighbors on Kelly Woods Lane in South Charlotte complained that El-Bey illegally moved into a foreclosed home.
But she says she didn't commit any crime. She told the judge “These statutes that were brought against me were improperly applied.”
El-Bey claims she's a member of the Moorish Nation. But an Assistant Grand Mufti of the Moorish Science Temple of America told us he's never met her.
Brother Siggers-Bey told us “The only way you can proclaim nationality in the Moorish Science of Temple of America is to go into a temple, to join a temple, chartered, a lawfully chartered temple.”
He said what El-Bey is convicted of doing is against the Moorish teachings.
“We may not agree with all the laws, but we strictly adhere to the laws, all the laws. If there's a legal process to obtain something then we do that. If there's a legal process to obtain a traveling document then we do that,” he said.
We also talked to Greensboro police Sgt. Kory Flowers who’s worked for many years to help prevent cases like this.
He called it a “nationwide phenomenon."
"They believe that banks can't own property. Only human beings can own property, so a foreclosed house is a serendipitious situation. It's an abandoned house. We can enter it. We can take care of it. It becomes ours.”
Sgt. Flowers said this is why it’s important to get to know your neighbors.
In South Charlotte, the home on Kelly Woods Lane is now under contract and El-Bey has been told to stay away.