Accomack Indian Nation Chief Receives Suspended 24-Year Sentence in False-Lien Case

By Linda Cicoira

     Accomack Indian Nation Chief Lisa Renia Cypress was sentenced Tuesday in Northampton Circuit Court to 24 years in prison and fined $12,000 for 24 counts of maliciously filing false liens or encumbrances in 2024. 

     She claims that her tribe owns patents for numerous historical and valuable parcels in the county. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court related to her ownership claims. She filed the liens in the local court in an attempt to obtain the properties.

     Judge Lynwood Lewis suspended all but the month or so she had already served in Eastern Shore Regional Jail. The terms were set to run consecutively. Cypress will be on good behavior for 10 years.

     The 62-year-old registered nurse, who lives in Georgia, was also ordered to pay $39,053 in court costs, which includes the costs for two sets of jurors. She was prohibited from filing anything in the circuit court clerk’s office without a judge’s permission. In addition, Cypress must set up a payment plan for the court fees. 

     The chief noted that she will appeal the convictions.

     Among the properties, Cypress says she owns are Indiantown Park, PNC Bank in Eastville, historic Eyre Hall farm, the 1765 Eyreville brick house and property, Smith Beach parcels, Hermitage Farm, parcels in the Bay Creek development in Cape Charles, Bayside Village parcels, Pocahontas Farm, and the recently renovated Rosenwald School in Cape Charles. 

     At a previous hearing, Cypress complained, “The proper elements for conviction,” and the definition of encumbrance was not offered to the jurors. She further said a Bay Creek attorney offered his opinion at the trial, which was a conflict.

     Evidence showed a million-dollar-plus sale at the Bay Creek development fell through after Cypress filed the encumbrance against the property. The land and house were finally sold a couple of months before trial. The company lost $70,000 due to the delay.

     Cypress said there was no proof that she knowingly filed a false encumbrance. “All he did,” she said, referring to Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton, “was show the documents were filed … most people would be in jail if quitclaims were determined to be illegal.”

    “It is a federal question,” Cypress added. She concluded that to consider “state law is greater than the federal government is almost treasonous … this is an act of someone trying to get justice. Not the act of a criminal … This is not someone who is just doing a scheme,” she said of herself.

     “She had every right to cross-examine, and she did,” the prosecutor said. There were “no objections to the jury instructions” at the trial. 

     Cypress represented herself and refused to work with several court-appointed lawyers. 

     It cost her about $800 to file the liens. Lewis ordered 24 quitclaims invalid and stricken from the record. The jury acquitted her of 24 counts of conspiracy to file the quitclaims and three counts of soliciting others to file them.