‘Sovereign citizens’ plaster courts with bogus legal filings—and some turn to violence
The Atta family locked up their Temecula, Calif., home and went on vacation in 2012. While they were gone, Victor Cheng moved in.
Cheng had owned the home before the Attas, but he lost it in foreclosure. Nonetheless, he filed a fraudulent deed with the county recorder's office, transferred the utilities into his name and even tried to evict the Attas after their return. During his prosecution for burglary, trespassing and filing a false document, he insisted that he was not the person being prosecuted because the indictment spelled his name in all capital letters.
• Cherron Phillips of Chicago was upset that she was barred from the courtroom during her brother's trial on drug charges. So she filed false $100 billion liens against the property of 12 people involved in the case—including the U.S. attorney and chief judge then serving in the Northern District of Illinois. When she was prosecuted, she insisted on representing herself, called herself River Tali El Bey, then filed numerous documents that the judge called "clotted nonsense."
• In New Jersey, Ronald Ottaviano's company offered a debt elimination plan that purported to draw money from a secret bank account maintained by the U.S. Treasury in each citizen's name. Potential customers were told that these fabricated accounts were set up to allow the government to borrow against each citizen's earnings, and that individuals who file the right papers can gain access to the accounts. After his own employees turned him in, Ottaviano defended himself against charges of fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. He told the court that he didn't believe he was subject to U.S. taxes.
What all of these cases have in common is that they are part of a movement of "sovereign citizens," according to law enforcement officials. Sovereigns—also called "freemen on the land" or "organic citizens"—believe that an illegitimate, usurper federal government has taken over, and that they don't have to pay taxes, pull over their cars for police or obey any other law they don't like.
These beliefs may sound silly, but sovereigns can be difficult to laugh off. For one thing, even though they don't believe they're subject to laws, they use laws as weapons. The FBI has called sovereigns "paper terrorists" because they so often fight perceived enemies—generally public employees—by filing false liens, false tax documents or spurious lawsuits. These can hurt the victim's credit, stymie attempts to sell or refinance property, and take years and thousands in legal fees to correct.
PSEUDO-LEGAL BARRAGE
The trouble doesn't stop there. When involved in any legal matter, from pet licensing to serious criminal charges, sovereigns are known for filing legal-sounding gibberish, usually pro se, learned from other sovereigns who sell lessons in "law" online. Frequently, they cite the Uniform Commercial Code, maritime law and the Bible.
They're also known for the sheer volume of their filings, which can double the size of a normal docket. This can frustrate and delay courts as they consider the defendant's competence and otherwise try to minimize disruptions. With many court systems fighting heavy caseloads and budget cuts, these extra headaches are unwelcome.
And though most sovereigns are not violent, there are exceptions. The FBI has declared them to be domestic terrorists because they occasionally get into armed confrontations with law enforcement. A sovereign father and son, Jerry and Joseph Kane, were responsible for the 2010 murders of two West Memphis, Ark., police officers, during what should have been a routine traffic stop. Jerry Kane was a known figure within the sovereign movement, traveling the country to sell ideas on debt elimination and stopping foreclosure. His girlfriend, Donna Lee Wray, later made news by flooding Tampa's local government with paperwork when they wanted her to get a dog license.
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