A Pennsylvania judge ordered a self-described sovereign citizen released from a psychiatric hospital following his arrest last year on traffic offenses.
Todd Detwiler, of Roaring Spring, was jailed late last year after he refused to sign court papers for traffic citations and then offered false papers to get his motorcycle released from a towing service in July 2013, reported the Altoona Mirror.
The 61-year-old Detwiler was initially cited after police said he was riding his motorcycle without proper registration, driver’s license, or helmet, and officers said the motorcycle had an altered title and makeshift license plate.
Instead of a state-issued license plate, police said, Detwiler had drawn one on cardboard that read “dei gratia,” a Latin phrase that means “by the grace of God.”
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Adherents of sovereign citizen beliefs are not typically found incompetent to stand trial, according to legal experts.
“Although sovereign citizens’ beliefs appear to be delusional, they typically are not considered delusions sufficient for the diagnosis required for incompetence,” wrote attorneys Melissa Shearer and Christina Koenig in their paper, “Representing the Sovereign Citizen.” “Delusional disorder, the mental illness with which a sovereign citizen would most likely be diagnosed, requires that the belief be a non-bizarre delusion.”
‘Sovereign citizen’ found mentally incompetent after driving with phony license plate
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