UPDATE::Sovereign Citizens Convicted of 'Paper Terrorism'

An update to this story,,,

Two members of the anti-government, “sovereign citizen” movement have been convicted by a Santa Barbara jury of trying to file a false lien against the home of a North County judge.

Tom Murphy and Jeff Lind were found guilty of multiple felonies, including one count of perjury, and face a maximum of three years and eight months in prison. Without prior records, they are eligible for probation. Murphy, a Missouri resident, has an outstanding warrant in Arizona for impersonating a judge and was ordered into custody out of worry he would not return to Santa Barbara for his sentencing on December 11.

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During this month’s trial, which lasted a week-and-a-half, Murphy and Lind’s attorneys argued that the men truly believed they had a valid claim over the judge’s property and so couldn’t be convicted of deceptively submitting a false lien. Prosecutor Brian Cota countered that the pair are bureaucratic bullies who use the filings to harass and intimidate those who they feel have wronged them. The jury deliberated for approximately two hours before returning with their guilty verdicts.

Cota said a second case is pending against Murphy and Lind on similar allegations. According to Cota, the two tried to have their original case dismissed by claiming to the Santa Barbara Superior Court’s administrative office that a Native American court — a judicial body of tribal leaders that they fabricated — had taken jurisdiction of the matter and dismissed the accusations. Cota said that case is still in its early stages of prosecution.

This is not the first time the Native American slant has been played before. William McRea, whom I have posted about before used the same tactic.

But JoAnne Hawkins, the Powhatan Renape representative on the New Jersey Commission on American Indian Affairs, is not impressed with the man who claims to be the tribe's new leader.

"He isn't legitimate," Hawkins said. "He has nothing to do with Powhatan Renape Nation."

Doreen Adele "Autumn Wind" Scott, the commission's chairwoman and a member of North Jersey's Ramapough Lenape Nation, said she had heard about the Crown Prince and would look into his claims.

But other Powhatan members and people posting on Native-American website forums have questioned why the council hasn't taken action against the Crown Prince.

"Our tribal leadership lacks a spiritual foundation, so we're unable to thrive as an organized Nation and it appears non-members are taking advantage of our time of weakness," Wendy Logan, a Powhatan formerly from South Jersey, said in an email from Arizona.

Sovereign Citizens Convicted of 'Paper Terrorism'

Man Who Ambushed Cops Had Anti-Government Beliefs - ABC News

A man who set his house on fire and ambushed responding police officers held "anti-government, anti-establishment" views and had previously threatened law enforcement, authorities said Sunday.

The gunman was identified as 53-year-old Curtis Wade Holley. Authorities said he fatally shot Leon County Sheriff's Deputy Christopher Smith, 47, on Saturday and wounded another deputy before he was killed in a gun battle outside his home.

At a news conference Sunday, sheriff's Lt. James McQuaig wouldn't detail the nature of the previous threats or Holley's anti-government beliefs. Holley had lived at the end of a cul-de-sac in a middle class neighborhood for about a year, McQuaig said.

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"Our responders yesterday were targeted for no other reason than they chose to spend their lives helping people," said Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo. "There is no doubt that the actions of our deputies and officers prevented additional loss of life."

McQuaig said that it appeared the fire had been burning for a while before authorities arrived because they didn't receive the 911 call until flames were visible from the outside. The house was completely destroyed.

Holley's name and address had been entered into a law enforcement computer system because of his previous threats, but the 911 dispatcher who took the fire call put in the address of a neighbor who reported the blaze, so the alert wasn't activated and the Leon County deputy who responded first had no warning, according to an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Man Who Ambushed Cops Had Anti-Government Beliefs - ABC News

Sovereign Citizens on Trial for 'Paper Terrorism'

Democracy may not be on trial, but Tom Murphy and Jeff Lind are. The two have ties to the anti-government “sovereign citizen” movement and are accused of conspiring to file a false lien against the Solvang home of a Santa Barbara County judge in a lengthy and bizarre series of legal challenges and political protests that dates back to 2010. They each face felony counts and maximum sentences of three years and eight months in prison, and their trial is scheduled to start this week.

The saga began when Lind, a marketing executive who lives in Orcutt and works in nearby San Luis Obispo, allegedly threatened a police officer who had arrested his son for driving under the influence. Lind was charged with witness intimidation and ordered to appear before Judge Kay Kuns. Claiming to not recognize the court’s authority over him, Lind — with help from Murphy, a dogged sovereign citizen crusader living in Los Osos at the time — loosed an avalanche of filings and paperwork claiming $77 million in damages against Kuns for violating his rights.

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Cota also noted that the names of dozens of people with bare involvement in the case — from Sheriff Bill Brown to county administrative staffers — appear in filings and online postings created by the pair. Some of the documents are labeled with assault weapon models, and many contain veiled threats, Cota said. On Monday, Murphy and/or Lind distributed fake arrest warrants for Cota, DA Joyce Dudley, Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, and others. The warrants were issued by Murphy’s fabricated organization, the National Standards Enforcement Agency out of Missouri that purports to convene its own Grand Jury.

What struck me from this article, "The warrants were issued by Murphy’s fabricated organization, the National Standards Enforcement Agency out of Missouri that purports to convene its own Grand Jury." Which reminded me of this article and a 2 1/2-hour conversation that ensued.

While the former article mentions National Standards Enforcement Agency. The latter talks about The National Liberty Alliance a group that has "drawn from more mainstream Republican and Tea Party activists than typical sovereign citizen organizations."

Regardless of which group is "more" legitimate and which group is doing what, the ideology behind the Sovereign Movement is a thorn in law enforcements side and they are dangerous; from the courts down to the beat cop.

As my conversation partner so aptly put it,

People that have never studied law or actually read the Constitution suddenly become legal experts based on misinformation bandied about on the fringe sites, Many get so wrapped up in this distorted worldview that they lose all sense of perspective. Their critical thinking skills have been trumped by fear, paranoia and false ideologies. At some point, it crosses the line from foolish to dangerous,,, The dynamics of it all are complex, People are lazy, and seek to oversimplfy everything. Human nature seeks to assign catchall labels to anything complicated.

Sovereign Citizens on Trial for 'Paper Terrorism'

Operation American Dud: Effort to Oust Obama Fails Miserably | Hatewatch

President Obama was not deposed today, nor were the leaders of the House and Senate. Millions of angry Americans did not take to the streets of the capital to angrily demand their country back. It’s hard to exaggerate just how much of an epic failure Operation American Spring (OAS) was today.

OAS was conceived by Harry G. Riley, a 76-year-old retired U.S. Army colonel. In an April 8 press release, the group demanded the “resignations of six, top government officials, including Articles of Impeachment against President Obama, for violating their oath of office, and/or by committing high crimes against the state, and requiring Congress to enforce the demands, or be held accountable.”

Consciously modeling itself after the “Arab Spring, Ukrainian Spring, and other successful, popular, and massive demonstrations against oppressive bureaucracies,” OAS predicted that “10 to 20 million Americans committed to reform our government under Constitutional constraints,” and possibly more, would take to the streets today to end Obama’s tyranny.

They didn’t.

At best, there was a ragtag crowd of a few hundred.

Operation American Dud: Effort to Oust Obama Fails Miserably | Hatewatch