There were more indicators.A man who told federal investigators he did not need a pilot’s license after nearly colliding with another plane over Palmer last year was convicted Wednesday of federal crimes in the case.
According to a statement from Alaska’s U.S. attorney’s office, a jury returned a split decision against 57-year-old William Marsan, finding him guilty of operating an aircraft without a license and operating an unregistered aircraft. The jury didn’t reach a unanimous verdict on the third count Marsan faced, operating an aircraft displaying a false aircraft registration mark.
The case stems from a June 2023 incident at the Palmer Airport, during which prosecutors said Marsan took off in his Piper Cherokee without tower clearance. His plane ascended into a stream of landing aircraft, nearly striking one. ...
An FAA inspector who approached Marsan later that summer to ask about his documents said Marsan responded that he didn’t require them as a “free citizen.” That identifier is often used by sovereign citizens, people who reject state and federal law, sometimes claiming to be citizens of self-defined nations. Inspectors who saw Marsan’s plane in Willow said its registration number was partially obscured by stickers, one of which “had the appearance of a flag.”
Citing to Mr. Marsan's "Additional Testimony of the living man William Brian Marsan an Idahoan in the form of an Affidavit" -- and with a title like that, I don't suspect it'd really be necessary to quote it, but:
Note that it took this long to get to the first functional punctuation, and even then it's just a comma. Anyway:1. Whereas the United States District Court for the District of Alaska, British territorial, and THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF ALASKA, Vatican municipal, in the jurisdictions of the sea and air continue to misidentify the living man William Brian Marsan as their fictional legal person/PERSON created by the British territorial United States of America incorporated and the Municipal UNITED STATES incorporated using my Christian name/Good trade Name via the Birth certificate registration without full and honest disclosure to my mother, I find it necessary--
Far be it from me to offer a legal opinion, but perhaps, if you are fighting a criminal case based on illegal flying (which is usually done through the air, and I don't see any evidence this case is otherwise), it is not helpful to suggest the court is "in the jurisdictions of the sea and air"?--necessary under duress and threat of further kidnapping of my body to file my testimonies and corrected records in your court. A threat has been issued via text message and letter from the court that they will come to my home and arrest me. This filing can not be construed as entering your jurisdiction willfully or in any way giving my consent to the proceeding against your defendant in case number 3:24-cr-00071-SLG-MMS. I am not making any motion or action that would give these courts jurisdiction over me and it cannot be assumed that I am
This impressive document, in summary, indicates that Mr. Marsan's journey down the trash chute began in 2021. During the COVID pandemic, he did some research online, and down he went. It's clear it has been a long strange trip, anyway. It's got it all: the all-caps legal fiction, British territorial, Vatican municipal, papers signed in multiple colors of ink, thumbprints, notaries, the "Declaration of the Naturalization Act of July 1779," several different versions of "Witness Testimony Affirming American State Political Status and Identity," an affidavit signed by his mother and father regarding his "good trade name" (which apparently is the trendy way to refer to the name that's not the all-caps name), a "Verification of Life" signed by a chiropractor (who, perhaps sensing something was up, remarks "confirmed ID w/ Government ID" on it), and on and on. Each of these, or most of them, anyway, are stamped on the back with a two-cent postage stamp that's been signed diagonally "By: William Brian Marsan (c)" with the copyright symbol rather stylishly integrated. The signature is in gold Sharpie, which is a new one to me. One of these documents, the "Acknowledgement, Acceptance and Deed of Re-Conveyance," confirms that all his names are re-conveyed to the land and soil of Idaho; it's perhaps the least of his problems that he recorded this in Alaska. There's "declared dead," there's "public usufruct," and on and on.
Deep in this document, we actually get a mention of the charges at hand:
I do suppose the other people on approach to the Palmer Airport might have a difference of opinion on that. Someone taking off against traffic doesn't really demonstrate a lack of threat. (The omitted periods at the paragraph ends are his, by the way. I don't know if that's supposed to be significant, but at this point it wouldn't be surprising.)10. I have flown planes over 23,000 hours in Alaska over the last 28 years without a single man or woman harmed by my actions. An impressive accomplishment for sure and clear evidence I am no threat to anyone and fully capable of making good decisions
Summarizing the whole 45-page document would not be feasible here. It does provide a neat encapsulation of the whole system, at least as it appeared in 2021, I suppose.11. I let the FAA know exactly what I was doing and why in a series of notices including my status and proper nationality and presented them with the notarized paperwork sent registered mail so they were fully informed and aware and they willfully ignored my testimony and corrections of the record. ... I want nothing to do with the FAA corporation as they were an accomplice in the covid experimental shot that harmed and killed many pilots and crew members and endangered many peoples lives. They are the danger in commerce! They could have and should have stopped the major airlines from mandating that experimental shot with no ingredient list but they did not proving they were an accomplice in the bioweapon. The same goes for the foreign owned USA corporation as they shutdown America and mandated the experimental MRNA shot for evil purposes. It is now known worldwide to be a bioweapon. I will have nothing to do with the criminal corporations involved in genecide [sic] of the American people and the people of the world and I cannot be forced to be a citizen of their corporation
One of Mr. Marsan's documents (the "Criminal Information...," doc 31) references Anna Von Reitz's web site as a "public record for The United States of America, unincorporated...." This thing is like the Whitman's Sampler of sovcit premises.
The Government's case was, as you might expect, relatively straightforward. As alleged in the indictment, Mr. Marsan had held an Airline Transport Pilot certificate and a Second-Class medical certificate. He let the medical certificate downgrade to Third-Class in 2020, and failed to renew that in 2021, so that his medical certification was fully expired at the relevant times. He cancelled his Cherokee's airplane registration (N40449) in June 2022. Then, on around June 9, 2023, the FAA got a report that he had not radiod his intentions to leave the Palmer Airport (PAAQ), but had just simply taken off against the flow of landing traffic, nearly hitting a landing airplane.
As a footnote, Palmer has a Flight Service Station on-field, but no tower, so no, he didn't call the tower before taking off. That part's normal. But normally, pilots are expected to coordinate among themselves when there's no tower, and here he probably should have been talking to the Flight Service Station first. It's not quite ATC, though it serves a similar purpose. Presumably, he did not want the foreign-owned USA corporation telling him what to do, or something.
Anyway, the FAA showed up on July 19 to do something about this, and saw Mr. Marsan landing at Palmer with an airplane full of empty 30-gallon fuel barrels. Mr. Marsan refused to show his credentials, as noted. A couple of days later, the FAA examined his airplane and found the "N" of the registration mark had been covered up with stickers. One was the good ol' Title 14 Flag (or whatever it is): as described in the indictment, "a flag described as bearing a rectangle containing blue stars on a white background with the remaining portion of that flag having red and white stripes aligned vertically." The other sticker is "a rectangle that is bisected diagonally with the top half being black in color with a white 'Z,' the lower half is white with a black 'Z.'" This is the first I've heard of the latter symbol. The sticker business laid the grounds for Marsan to be charged in count 3 with "knowingly and willingly display[ing] and causing to be displayed on an aircraft a mark that is false and misleading about the nationality and registration of the aircraft...in violation of 49 U.S.C. s. 46303(b)(3)." (As APM noted, the jury returned a hung verdict on this one.)
The progress of the case was unremarkable for its species, with Mr. Marsan filing a lot of papers called things like "Nonnegotiable" and "Cover letter and to fully inform the court," and so on. The court granted the government's motion in limine to bar Mr. Marsan's theories about sovereign citizenry, which makes sense. The only other remarkable thing was that the case was assigned to Judge Virginia Kendall of the Northern District of Illinois. This seems like a long-distance assignment: I don't know how common it is for Alaska cases to be heard by Lower 48 judges, or if this suggests that Mr. Marsan had been up to something in the Alaska District, but I hope Judge Kendall had a good time with it, anyway.
Sentencing is set for April 2 (10 AM Alaska time).
