A Rockingham County Board of Education member’s declaration of being a sovereign citizen surprised some other board members.
Rockingham Now reported on Monday, Jan. 27, that school board member Ron Price described himself as a sovereign citizen.
“It explains a lot of the behavior that we’ve seen from Ron [Price] in the past,” school board Vice Chairman Hal Griffin said. “It gives us a frame of reference to put that in.”
Price could not be reached for comment for this article.
He said in an interview for Rockingham Now's earlier story about sovereign citizens that being part of the group means bringing justice to those who feel they can’t get it.
Price explained himself as a sovereign citizen while discussing his involvement in the N.C. Common Law Grand Jury, which law enforcement considers a branch of the sovereign citizen movement.
“You know if you have a situation where you feel your rights have been violated and you haven’t been served justly, then you would bring that to the grand jury, the CLGJ, which you have the right to address.”
The N.C. Common Law Grand Jury plans to hold law enforcement officials; they feel violated people’s rights, accountable for their actions.
That link cut me off before I could finish reading the article and now it won't let me back on.
Here's another article that mentions this guy:
The Reidsville Review (North Carolina)
January 27, 2014
Anti-government movement hits Rockingham County BY: DANIELLE BATTAGLIA Staff writer
A Rockingham County Board of Education member has acknowledged participating in an anti-government group planning to use methods of questionable legality to hold local law enforcement and judicial officials responsible for actions the group does not accept as legitimate.
Members of the movement, called sovereign citizens, are known for being anti-government and for believing themselves to be above the law.
Michael Crowell, a professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina's School of Government, describes sovereign citizens as a catch-all term for different kinds of people sharing a belief that the court system, state and local government have no jurisdiction over them.
"They arrive at this conclusion for different reasons but they all have a view that the current government is not legitimate and that they are not subject to its rules," Crowell said.
Crowell said this set of beliefs shows up in several different ways. He said the most common manifestation happens in district court. Sovereigns claim the court doesn't have power to force payment of a traffic ticket.
"It gets complicated because the views are so screwy that it's hard to explain them in a logical way," Crowell said.
School Board member
School board member Ron Price's name appears on a Facebook page that appears to represent the views of sovereign citizens. When asked if he considers himself a sovereign citizen he replied, "I would."
He quickly changed the wording, though.
"Let me correct that," Price said. "I wouldn't call myself a sovereign citizen because a citizen has a different terminology under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I am a sovereign member of society."
The 14th Amendment discusses the qualifications of American citizens and the rights and immunities granted to them.
Crowell said sovereigns share the belief that the country has federal citizens and sovereign citizens. The belief dates to the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868.
"What many of them believe is that the 14th Amendment was not legitimately adopted," Crowell said. "That they, sovereign citizens, retain certain rights that the government can't take over and that you have to avoid subjecting yourself to the jurisdiction of the government, refusing to accept government benefits."
Crowell said sovereigns issue their own driver's licenses and other government documents to avoid accepting government benefits.
Sovereign citizens
Say the words, "sovereign citizen" to a police officer and expect a groan.
Greensboro Police Cpl. Kory Flowers trains law enforcement personnel and others within the judicial system about sovereign citizens.
Flowers said that when a sovereign thinks a member of law enforcement, including officers, judges, clerks of courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys, has violated his sovereign rights he files lawsuits or false liens against the person in question. The lawsuits usually seek large sums of money.
"Imagine coming home to your wife and telling her you have a $72 million lawsuit against you," Flowers said. "You can tell her, 'Don't worry, it'll work out,' but it's not a pleasant conversation to have."
Law enforcement uses the term "paper terrorism" to describe this act.
The liens filed impact a person's livelihood. A lien is not exclusive to real estate but gives people the ability to come back to reclaim their rightful property.
In other words, if someone didn't pay a worker for painting a home, the painter can file a lien against the person's property ensuring the eventual payment for his work. The contractor must provide a signed contract showing the owed payment.
A false lien means the person never owed the money claimed.
Flowers said North Carolina makes filing a lien against someone easy. The state legislature did this to help small businesses that couldn't afford to sue collect money from clients.
However, officers and judicial officials find sovereigns filing liens against their properties.
"Police officers are going to close on their homes and at the closing table, when you need everything perfect, they suddenly find they have this lien against them," Flowers said.
Guilford County District Court Judge Thomas Jarrell Jr. experienced this when he went to refinance his home. Flowers said Jarrell discovered a $70 million lien against his property while trying to complete the refinancing.
"He missed the refinance because of it," Flowers said. "That's a big deal."
Flowers described members of the sovereign citizen movement as "a different breed of criminal" in an intelligence report completed by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project director, Heidi Beirich.
Flowers told Beirich that Greensboro has had sovereigns citizens yell at officers and judges. They jump on furniture and throw things during court proceedings, Flowers reported.
The group has violent ties, too. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterterrorism Analysis Section calls the group a "domestic terrorist movement" and reports that six officers have died at the hands of a sovereign since 2000.
A week before press time, deputies in Franklin County, Ohio, had run-in with a sovereign citizen. Media reports from the area explained how deputies waited for self-proclaimed sovereign Mark A. Kulis to leave his home in order to evict him.
Upon entering Kulis' home deputies found it rigged with five explosive devices.
"There are a bunch of these folks," Flowers said. "Very few are volatile and dangerous - 99 percent are not physically dangerous."
Flowers said that what makes sovereigns dangerous is their belief that the rulebook doesn't apply to them.
"Officer's who aren't normally intimidated by anything feel threatened by this group," Flowers said.
Flowers learned during his training seminars throughout the country many officers know the sovereigns in their community and try to avoid them because of the intimidation.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Wayne Hamilton agrees sovereigns are intimidating. He also helps train officers on sovereigns.
"They hate and I mean, hate, the government, and since we're appointed by the government they hate us," Hamilton said. "They respect the sheriff because he's elected by the people."
The sovereign citizen movement began 60 to 70 years ago but grew in popularity in the 1970s. It slowly dissipated and didn't come back into popularity until the recession hit in 2008, according to Flowers.
Flowers said sovereigns promise people that the government owes them money held in secret accounts. They believe they know ways to help people access these secret accounts not realizing they're circumventing the law.
Hamilton sovereign citizens believe that national leaders create "strawman" accounts for each person when a birth certificate is created.
Local involvement
Local law enforcement has dealt with sovereigns.
The spokesmen for Reidsville and Eden police departments both said the cities have residents claiming sovereignty.
Reidsville police officers deal with sovereigns mostly during traffic stops. Reidsville's spokesman, Capt. Wendell Neville said the department's dealings are usually passive. Neville said the department had one physical arrest of a sovereign.
An officer from the department discussed an arrest saying he pulled the sovereign over for false tags. The man jumped out of his car and the officer told him to get back in. The sovereign refused and eventually the situation escalated to an arrest.
Neville said none of his officers has received a lawsuit or lien because of a sovereign. Eden Police's spokesman Lt. Clint Simpson said the officers in his department hadn't either.
However, Simpson said an officer issued a resident sovereign a ticket and the person said he didn't believe it to be lawful. Simpson believes this person moved away and the department hasn't had any dealings with a sovereign in several years.
Madison Police Chief Mike Rutherford said his department hasn't dealt with sovereign citizens.
None of the departments, including the Highway Patrol, knew about a group forming in Rockingham County.
Common Law Grand Jury
A group of people began forming the N.C. Common Law Grand Jury. Rockingham County's branch held its election in December.
Crowell said North Carolina hasn't had an issue with CLGJ yet, though other states have.
'That is a potentially serious problem," Crowell said. "It means that these folks are acting on their beliefs to the extent that they think they can form their own courts."
Price, the school board member, said the CLGJ gives residents another judicial option if someone feels violated during court proceedings.
"You know if you have a situation where you feel your rights have been violated and you haven't been served justly, then you would bring that to the grand jury, the CLGJ, which you have the right to address," Price said.
Price said the group raises membership by finding people who believe the court system violated their rights.
"We contact people who are aware of what's going on and people who have been involved in issues where they realize that they don't have a remedy - an easy remedy," Price said. "I mean without getting a lawyer and going to court and filing a lawsuit and all of that."
Price said those people come before the CLGJ and share their views.
"If the grand jury agrees, then they can do more research and they will present a bill of indictment to the district attorney and then the district attorney would act on that indictment just like it works with the statutory grand jury the court on itself calls," Price said.
Getting Rockingham County's district attorney, Phil Berger Jr., to act on the indictment might prove difficult considering he's the first person mentioned on the Facebook page to indict.
Berger declined to comment.
"There is a lot of speculation there from people who are participating that that would have to be determined by the grand jury itself," Price said.
Price said an actual indictment of someone depends on the cases brought before the CLGJ.
Flowers said he attends some of the meetings of these groups undercover. He describes it like this:
"We call them the vigil-anti grand jury. If a sovereign is stopped in a traffic stop, it convenes the grand jury. It puts the officers on trial. A jury made up of sovereigns and a sovereign magistrate comes in.
"You know where this is going. A sovereign citizen stands in as an officer. They discuss a violated fee schedule. After about six seconds they say, 'Your sovereign rights were infringed on' and they file a false lawsuit or lien."
The officer then comes home to an indictment or order for arrest in his mailbox, according to Flowers.
Crowell said that in other states the CLGJs go out and actually "arrest" someone.
"That's potentially a very serious problem," Crowell said.
Rockingham County's group already geared up to mail out indictments. On its Facebook page, the group shows the embosser ordered to stamp the indictments with a Rockingham County seal.
Flowers said using these isn't illegal unless it states notary public on it. The group's doesn't.
However filing false lawsuits or liens, which clogs up the court system, does come with a felony charge, according to law enforcement officials.
"We took a vote and instituted the Common Law Grand Jury, to reinstate it," Price said. "You know it's spreading. This is working throughout the state."
Price said so far people in 3,141 counties across the nation have formed a CLGJ. Price said the state CLGJ won't form until 25 percent of the counties begin a group. People from Raleigh, Asheville, Charlotte and surrounding counties like Guilford all participate actively in the Facebook page and weekly conference calls, which was clear during Sunday's night's call.
Flowers said the Common Law Grand Jury is a direct link to the sovereign citizen movement.
A post on the group's Facebook page: N.C. Common Law Grand Jury, denies this saying the two are independent of one another. However, multiple posts on the group's page self-identify individuals as sovereign citizens.
The members of this page are also noteworthy. It includes members of the county's and state's GOP organization, some of whom appear to participate regularly on the Facebook page.
Except for Price, those whose names appear on the page did not return calls seeking confirmation and comment.
Well, given that the so-called "Constitution of (for) the United States" is illegitimate, since it was not validly enacted, the Articles of Confederation are still in force; and thus, CLGJs are legal. That may seem incredible; but I read it all right here:
What's that you say? By ratifying the Constitution, the states gave after-the-fact approval to the actions of a group which had authority only to REVISE the Articles??????
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture." -- Pastor Ray Mummert, Dover, PA, during an attempt to introduce creationism -- er, "intelligent design", into the Dover Public Schools
