State prosecutors in Colorado have obtained guilty pleas or convictions against five of nine antigovernment sovereign citizens and common-law court activists accused of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy against assorted elected public officials.
In this month’s Sovereign Files, a famous pitchman turned pariah attempts sovereign citizenship in court, a man who calls himself “Man” is sentenced to prison and a tax preparer who sought to defraud the government will be behind bars in the New Year
Sovereign citizens are a diverse group of individuals whose activities and motives vary, but whose core tenets are the typically the same. They view United States citizenship, established government, authority and institutions as illegitimate and consider themselves immune from and therefore above the law.
An accused double-murderer — described as one of Florida’s most “notorious criminals” — apparently now thinks he’s a sovereign citizen.
In this month’s Sovereign Files, a man shoots at numerous law enforcement personnel and shuts down a highway over a dispute about his driveway, a fake psychic skips his own sentencing hearing to watch the eclipse, and a New Hampshire politician who refused to pay his traffic ticket calls a judge a “private profit making corporation” and says her court has no authority over him.
A self-described Moorish “Grand Sheik,” who led a sovereign-citizen-style fraud scheme seeking more than $100 million in tax refunds, has been sentenced to 68 months in federal prison.
Sovereign citizens are a diverse group of individuals whose activities and motives vary, but whose core tenets are the typically the same. They view United States citizenship, established government, authority and institutions as illegitimate and consider themselves immune from and therefore above the law.
Bundy supporters are a mix of sovereign citizens, militia members, extremist constitutionalists and the Bundy's friends and family.
He objected to the judge’s authority, spouted disruptive statements in the courtroom and ultimately was ejected from his trial, but Gabriel Lee Muniz still was convicted of sexually abusing a young boy in Grand Junction, Colorado.
