Accomack Indian Nation Chief challenges convictions ahead of sentencing

By Linda Cicoira 

     Chief Lisa Renia Cypress of the Accomack Indian Nation began making her motions in Northampton Circuit Court on Monday, speaking in what appeared to be a Native American language that perhaps only her entourage could understand. 

      She didn’t switch to English until she had spoken a bit more, despite a request from Judge Lynwood Lewis, who explained the court reporter couldn’t take down her words.

     It wasn’t Cypress’ first appearance in the judicial system. She was convicted of 24 counts of maliciously filing a false lien or encumbrance earlier this year in the same court and has attempted to fight in U.S. District Court for ownership of properties now known as 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 Rosenwald School in Cape Charles. 

      Cypress is scheduled to be sentenced for the crimes on Aug. 4. Lewis has allowed her to remain free on bond until then.

     When she got around to stating her business, Cypress said Judge Lewis should be disqualified from her criminal case because when she first appeared before him at a hearing to determine competency, she still had pending business in federal court.

      Lewis denied that motion and one that asked for the verdict to be set aside. “You just filed something in federal court. That’s not the basis for removal.”

     Cypress complained, “The jury did not receive the proper elements for conviction.” She said the panel was not given the definition of encumbrance and that a legal opinion was offered by a Bay Creek lawyer, who, she contended, has conflicts because her patent includes property at the development.     

     Evidence showed a million-dollar-plus sale at the Bay Creek development fell through after Cypress filed the encumbrance against the property in 2024. 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 quick claims 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. 

     Sixty-one-year-old Cypress, a registered nurse who lives in Decatur, Georgia, represented herself. Lewis urged her to use the lawyers he appointed, but she refused. 

Now she could face more than 300 years in prison.

     Filing the deeds in question amounted to about $800. 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. A charge of violating her bond was not prosecuted.