A whole bunch of village, town and county officials in Ulster County are probably wishing that they'd never heard of Richard-Enrique Ulloa, a man whom they accused of fraud and extortion in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court a week ago.
According to court documents, after getting a traffic ticket in Rosendale last May, Ulloa appeared in Rosendale Town Court before Town Justice Robert Vosper. When Ulloa refused to produce an ID, Vosper sent him to Ulster County Jail.
Two days after his court appearance, Ulloa began sending some aggressive pieces of mail. First, he sent Vosper a document labeled "criminal complaint," along with a demand for over $150 million. Then he sent a similar document to the town of Rosendale, demanding over $550 million.
Over the course of half a year, Ulloa sent more invoices and demands, until finally he filed liens for millions of dollars with the New York Department of State against the town of Rosendale and against Vosper. All over a traffic ticket.
Ulloa has had similar exchanges with other towns, as well as Ulster County, where he owned a house that faced foreclosure last year. After Ulster county refused to accept a document Ulloa wanted to file, Ulloa filed a lien against Ulster County for over $2.82 billion. Yes, that says "billion."
To read the accounts of the many officials and municipalities who have been informed that they owe Ulloa enormous amounts of money, page through their federal legal complaint, which we've pasted below.
The towns, officials, and counties say that all of Ulloa's invoices, demands and liens are fraudulent, and that by sending them, he is engaging in extortion and harassment.
Ulloa, for his part, has quite a way with words. In another, unrelated lawsuit, which he filed against the Mid Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union in January in an attempt to avert foreclosure on his Kingston property, he describes himself as a "living, breathing, flesh and blood man." To read Ulloa's legal reasoning in full, you can check out the complaint in that case below.
Ulloa v. Mid Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union Complaint
Update: The Times Herald-Record has a story on the whole debacle, which includes this priceless nugget:
Ulloa's driveway in Stone Ridge is decorated with signs that warn trespassers will be shot. A "Don't Tread on Me" flag flies in his front yard. And when he's asked about the liens, he says they're "100 percent valid."
"There's only two law books that exist," Ulloa says, "The Uniform Commercial Code and the Bible."
