Brooks Hill Area Land-Deed Fraud InvestigationWhidbey Island · Island County, WA
Island County · Township 29 North, Range 3 East
Fraudulent land-deed filings affecting the Brooks Hill / Katya Lane area
Three individuals recorded sovereign-citizen “land-patent” quitclaim deeds that
purport to claim large tracts of Whidbey Island land — including the section that contains
our homes. The County recorded them (recording makes a document public, not
valid) and later annotated all three as “INVALID DEED.” This site
documents exactly what was filed, whose property is affected, and what to do about it.
fraudulent quitclaim deeds recorded
(Feb–Apr 2025)
3
flagged by the County as
INVALID DEED
~869
acres of Whidbey Island land falsely claimed
across the three deeds
23,561
county recordings indexed & searched to
isolate the fraud
Neighborhood meeting on the Schermer deed. Attending? Please sign in so we have a
record of who came and can send you updates — and follow the presentation on your phone or
tablet during the meeting.
Join our neighborhood Facebook group. The fastest way to stay updated on the case,
get details for the neighborhood meeting, and connect with other affected owners is the
Brooks Hill Neighborhood group.
Quitclaim deeds in which each filer names themselves as both grantor and grantee,
claiming to be the “successor in interest” to an 1800s U.S. Land Patent. All three
were notarized by the same Seattle notary and filed within a five-week window.
The Schermer deed (#4583924) traces to Government Lot 1 of Section 5 and part of
Section 4, T29N R3E — covering the Neis and Wayne properties and much of the
neighborhood. Mapping the deed’s own legal description shows a few parcels once thought
included — including the Rutter / Garibyan parcels on Katya Lane — actually sit just
south of and outside it. Even so, title companies are declining to insure sales/refinances in the
area until the invalid deed is cleared of record.
Island County Sheriff fraud investigation #26-I10572 (Det. Bo Miller) is open. A Legal
Action Request is pending with the Prosecutor (via the Auditor) to quiet the deeds. No
Island County court case has been filed yet.
We downloaded and searched the County’s full recording index (23,561 instruments),
pulled and OCR’d the actual document images, and verified identities against King County
property records and the state notary registry.
With gratitude to Paul Neis. Paul first spotted
these malicious filings and alerted the neighborhood, which set the County investigation in motion.
This resource exists because he raised the alarm. See his property summary on the
Affected Properties page.
For attorneys: a dedicated Legal Team
section provides a hyperlinked exhibit index, statutes and causes of action, the chain of custody,
a quiet-title / LAR roadmap, and the title-insurance damages angle.
Update — a commercial operation behind the filings. Public Secretary of State
records show these were not three isolated individuals: Gold Dust Title Company, LLC (formed
March 20, 2025; sole governor Douglas “Steven” Shroyer) operates a Langley, WA
principal office and a website that markets and sells the “land patent” model —
“Land Patent Research,” quitclaim-deed preparation, “County Auditor Legal Filings,”
and a “title insurance bypass.” Its registered agent is Ballard Law Group,
whose partner John Scott Hicks shares the name of the notary on all three deeds. See the
Gold Dust Title Company and Ballard
Law Group pages, and how the people connect on Named Individuals.
Real, present harm — a neighbor’s blocked sale. Owner
Kathy Kundert is actively trying to sell her Langley property at 4896 Lucy Ln (Section 4),
and title companies are declining to insure the sale until the fraudulent deeds are cleared. Her
property summary shows how these bogus filings stall honest
transactions today.