U.S. Marshals Seize Estate of Couple

U.S. marshals seized a 14-acre estate in Hamilton where a couple had been holed up in a fight over an unpaid $1.6-million bank loan, ending a nine-month standoff. Marshals removed John Sweeney from the main house of the estate, where he had been barricaded since June, and took control of a 300-year-old cottage and a barn. The estate once belonged to Sweeney’s great-grandfather, who was a secretary of the Navy, postmaster general and an ambassador. Sweeney and his wife, Rhetta, contend that they were misled by the bank that granted the original loan and said the federal government does not have jurisdiction to foreclose on or seize the estate.