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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Third auction set for anti-government activist’s land

Previous two attempts fell through; Darby says he won't move

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Selling a tax-foreclosed property at auction is proving difficult for the Clark County Treasurer’s Office.

The property’s current owner, after all, says he doesn’t plan to budge.

For the third time in three weeks, the treasurer’s office will attempt to sell the 4.7-acre parcel of land in Amboy, which, for the time being, still belongs to anti-government activist David Darby, who considers himself a sovereign citizen beyond the reach of county authority.

The auction takes place Tuesday from 8 to 11 a.m. online.

Two prior attempts to sell the property haven’t resulted in a closed sale.

The first auction on Sept. 16 yielded a high bid of $63,099, but the buyer, Richard Grady of Vancouver, failed to provide the money by the county’s deadline the next day. The property again appeared to sell on Sept. 23 for roughly $55,000. But when the high bidder viewed the property and found it in disrepair, he took the offer off the table, said Treasurer Doug Lasher.

Lasher said he’s been upfront with potential buyers about the state of the property.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, with all of his stuff he has out there on the grounds,” Lasher said.

He added: “It’s definitely a value for the price of the land. It’s an investment if (the buyers) are not willing to build on it immediately.”

Complicating matters, Darby has said he doesn’t intend to leave the property once it’s sold. The sheriff’s office has said it would only force Darby off the property under a court order, a process that could take months.

He says he owns his property outright through a “land patent,” a complicated legal designation that the county doesn’t recognize.

In court filings, Darby wrote that he has “sovereign rights without the scope of government and those rights are protected by the 1787 Constitution for the United States.” He’s said that he intends to appeal the legitimacy of the sale of his property as soon as a transaction is completed.

Darby and the county had been embroiled in a legal dispute over the property since 2012. In August, a Clark County Superior Court judge ordered the county to sell the property at auction.

Upon the sale of the property, Darby will be entitled to all of the money in excess of his unpaid tax bill.

Despite the difficulty in unloading the property, Lasher said he’s confident the county will be able to sell it to someone who has long-term plans for it.

“They’ll need to do their due diligence,” Lasher said, “so they know what their options are with the property.”

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