In this month鈥檚 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 鈥減rivate profit making corporation鈥� and says her court has no authority over him.
A self-described Moorish 鈥淕rand Sheik,鈥� 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.聽
Bundy supporters are a mix of sovereign citizens, militia members, extremist constitutionalists and the Bundy's聽friends and family.聽
He objected to the judge鈥檚 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.
Sovereign citizens are a diverse group of individuals whose activities and motives vary, but whose core tenets are the typically the same
A sovereign citizen who recklessly drove his pickup in reverse through a Fourth of July crowd, killing one man and injuring eight other people, faces 12 years in prison following a June 19聽sentencing hearing in Clinton, Tennessee.
In a rare criminal filing, an antigovernment sovereign citizen in Florida faces a felony charge of unlawful practice of law 鈥� pretending to be an attorney in a court of law 鈥� by representing parents whose children were taken from them by state authorities.
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.聽
