Document courtesy the Office of the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Chicago

1. In the spring of 2011, Cherron Marie Phillips, a real estate agent in Chicago, decided to take revenge on twelve government officials who had been involved in prosecuting her brother Devon for drug trafficking. Phillips went to the office of her local recorder of deeds, where she filed a series of liens against the judges, prosecutors, law enforcement agents, and court staff who had taken part in his case. (Liens establish a legal claim to property in order to guarantee the payment of a debt.) One…