A man accused of twin murders in a Phoenix suburb and facing a possible death sentence used language in his initial court appearance mimicking false legal theories advanced by antigovernment “sovereign citizens.”

Michael Lee Crane, 31, is charged in Maricopa County with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, two counts of armed robbery, burglary and arson.  He is accused of killing Lawrence and Glenna Shapiro in their Paradise Valley, Ariz., home on Jan. 31, then setting fire to the couple’s home in an attempt to conceal the crime. ( continue to full post… )

These days, the U.S. Department of Justice and its investigators and prosecutors get accused of a lot of things by conspiracy-minded antigovernment extremists, but here’s a new one. A so-called “sovereign citizen” in the state of Washington, just sentenced to 40 months in prison, has filed suit accusing the government and its agents of using poor grammar and writing at a second-grade level.

David Russell Myrland filed the civil suit in U.S. District Court in Seattle with help from David Wynn Miller, another sovereign who claims he became the “king of Hawaii” in 1996 after turning that state’s name into a verb. (For the record, Miller prefers the “full-colon” spelling of his name, David-Wynn: Miller. Like many sovereigns who don’t recognize most state and federal laws, he claims the government uses grammar to enslave it citizens. By using hyphens and colons in their names, he claims, citizens can escape the grasp of government and its taxes.) ( continue to full post… )

There’s stupid, and then there’s really stupid. Finally, there’s blind, leaden stupidity, a quality personified in great detail by the loathsome Glenn Beck last week.

Beck has long been aware of his own ridiculous qualities, telling The New York Times for a major 2009 profile that he was a mere “rodeo clown,” not really a serious kind of a fellow. But that’s letting the one-time Fox News host off the reality hook a little too easily. The plain truth is that Beck has done as much as anyone to inject complete falsehoods, conspiracy theories and demonizing propaganda into American political discourse. Facts mean nothing to the rodeo clown.

Neither, it turns out, does any kind of taste or judgment. ( continue to full post… )

An accountant who took his antigovernment “sovereign citizen” views to work with him is going to prison, and many of his former clients are faced with huge, unpaid tax bills.

Timothy Garrison, 60, of Mount Vernon, Wash., was sentenced Wednesday to 42 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $95,626 in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of assisting with the filing of false income tax returns. ( continue to full post… )

UPDATE 2.2.12: The jury sentenced James Michael Tesi to 35 years in prison.

A self-described “sovereign citizen,” who also called himself a “Moorish American,” has been convicted in Fort Worth, Texas, of shooting at a police officer who tried to arrest him for traffic violations last summer.

James Michael Tesi, 49, was taken into custody following the jury verdict Tuesday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The 12-member jury immediately began the penalty phase. Tesi faces up to life in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Tesi, an occupational therapist, was charged with aggravated assault on a public servant with a deadly weapon. The charge stems from a series of encounters he had with police for not wearing a seat belt, speeding, failing to show up in court and not producing a valid driver’s licenses. ( continue to full post… )

Everyone has heard of jailhouse lawyers. How about a jailhouse accountant – an antigovernment “sovereign citizen” doing time in New York – who got a $327,456 tax return from the IRS?

Ronald Williams not only filed 12 fraudulent tax returns for himself while behind bars, he also reportedly helped at least 10 other New York state prison inmates with their tax returns, testimony revealed at his just-concluded trial. ( continue to full post… )

A self-described “sovereign citizen” – part of what the FBI recently described as a growing and dangerous antigovernment movement – goes on trial this week near Fort Worth, Texas, on charges of aggravated assault on a public servant.

James Michael Tesi is accused of shooting at police officer John Fossett in the Fort Worth suburb of Hurst last July 21 when the officer attempted to arrest Tesi on a warrant. As frequently occurs with sovereign citizens, people who believe federal and state laws don’t apply to them, the potentially deadly shooting involving the police officer started as a relatively minor traffic infraction.

The danger of contact between police and sovereign citizens was underscored in an important report released just four months ago by FBI analysts who say sovereigns pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat. That report followed by more than a year the notorious May 20, 2010, murders of two West Memphis, Ark., police officers by a father-son team of sovereigns; both were later killed by police. ( continue to full post… )

Affirming his group’s embrace of antigovernment “Patriot” ideology, League of the South (LOS) President Michael Hill on Monday sent members an E-Mail declaring the federal government an “organized criminal enterprise” led by “domestic terrorists” and telling his followers to prepare for a fight.

“I discourage the formation of private militias except as a last resort,” he wrote. “If your State and local officials refuse to serve the citizens and to protect them by the historic means of Nullification, Interposition, or Secession, then you may have reached the ‘last resort.’”

It’s not especially shocking that a group that advocates secession and sees the Civil War as an aggressive attack on a peaceful people would articulate these ideas, particularly in an era that has seen a significant rise in Patriot activity overall. The LOS has been drifting in this direction since at least 2007, and the rhetoric at its July 2011 national conference stressed Patriot and survivalist themes more than ever. ( continue to full post… )

An antigovernment “sovereign citizen” indicted nearly three years ago in a money laundering case is back in custody and being returned this week to U.S. District Court in Nevada.

Shawn Talbot Rice surrendered and was arrested on Dec. 22 after a day-long standoff with FBI agents and local police in Seligman, Ariz. ( continue to full post… )

The suspect who shot and killed a Pennsylvania police officer and wounded a second policeman over the weekend died himself Monday in a gunfight with lawmen who surrounded his house in Webster, Pa.

Eli Franklin Myers III, 58, died in a hail of gunfire after he exited his home on Logan Street, firing a large-caliber handgun at Special Response Team officers who had identified him as the suspect in the deadly police shooting the previous night. ( continue to full post… )