Anti-government 'sovereign movement' on the rise in U.S.
John Joe Gray: Doesn’t acknowledge the authority of any government Anderson County (Texas) Sheriff's Office
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY March 29, 2012
TRINIDAD, Texas – Gary Thomas will never forget the letter he received in early 2000. It was from John Joe Gray, a suspect in a felony assault case, offering a not-so-subtle warning to the area's chief criminal investigator: He had no intention of answering charges that he had attacked a state trooper.
"What he said was this: 'If y'all come to get me, bring body bags,' " said Thomas, now a local justice of the peace.
Thomas remembers the message clearly, not because of its unvarnished threat, but because — after 12 years — Gray, who doesn't acknowledge the authority of any government, continues to dare police to come and get him.
Sequestered on a 50-acre, wooded compound in East Texas since jumping bail more than a decade ago, Gray and his clan have effectively outlasted the administrations of four local sheriffs, all of whom have decided that John Joe's arrest is not worth the risk of a violent confrontation.
"The risk of loss of life on both ends is far too great," said Anderson County District Attorney Doug Lowe, who first sought to prosecute Gray for the alleged Christmas Eve 1999 assault of Texas Trooper Jim Cleland. "I believed it then; I still feel that way."
The stalemate, perhaps the longest-running standoff in the U.S. between law enforcement and a fugitive living in plain sight, is also emblematic of what the FBI believes is a troubling re-emergence of an anti-government movement that vaulted to notoriety in 1995. Then, one of its disaffected sympathizers, Timothy McVeigh— angered by the government's botched 1993 raid of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas — detonated a truck bomb outside the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people in what was at the time the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
In the past three years, there has been growing concern over activities of so-called "sovereign citizens," who like the Grays and many of their anti-government predecessors "claim to exist beyond the realm of government authority," according to a January FBI bulletin to state and local law enforcement officials warning of the potential for violence.
The sovereign movement, estimated by the Southern Poverty Law Center to number 100,000 ardent followers and about 200,000 sympathizers across the country, is rooted in an ideology that rejects government authority at its most basic levels, from its power to tax to the enforcement of criminal laws, including common traffic regulations. The law center, which tracks extremist groups in the USA, based its estimates partly on its reviews of tax disputes and court documents involving people who do not recognize government authority.
Although the FBI does not track sovereigns by number, the bureau does not dispute the law center's estimates, which have swelled dramatically within a national anti-government network of related "patriot" and "militia'' groups. Since 2008, the number of groups surged from 149 to 1,274 in 2011, the law center reported this month.
The rapid growth, according to the law center, has been fueled by a collision of factors, from the troubles related to the struggling economy and foreclosure crisis to the election of President Obama, the nation's first black president. Obama's election prompted a "backlash" from extremist groups who were further angered by decisions to provide government assistance to Wall Street banks and automakers, the law center found.
Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, said the sovereigns have become more active in seeking retaliation against government officials by filing fraudulent lawsuits and liens, seeking billions of dollars in judgments. The actions often follow arrests, evictions, court rulings and other interactions with authorities.
At its most extreme, McArthur said, sovereigns have been linked to threats of violence and the murders of six police officers since 2002, including the slayings of officers Brandon Paudert and Bill Evans in West Memphis, Ark., in 2010.
"There are people at war with this country who are not international terrorists," said Robert Paudert, the former chief of the West Memphis Police Department and the father of one of the slain officers. "I had never heard of the sovereign citizen movement before May 20, 2010 (the day of his son's murder). But these are people who are willing to kill or be killed for their beliefs."
At Gray's property line
At the end of a rutted, dirt-gravel road, about 70 miles southeast of Dallas, sits John Joe Gray.
It doesn't take long to learn that Gray and his family, after more than 12 years of living in isolation without electricity and modern plumbing, have no intention of surrendering to local authorities or engaging in much discussion about their plight.
A heavily armed patrol of three men — each carrying holstered handguns, knives and rifles — meets visitors one late February afternoon at the family's property line, a fence line festooned with weathered placards bearing anti-government slogans.
"When people fear the government, there is tyranny. When government fears the people, there is freedom," reads one. Another: "Vaccinations equal Annihilation."
Although the three confirm to USA TODAY during a recent visit that they are members of the Gray family, they refuse to provide their full names. The oldest — a bearded man with a mane of long, wiry hair who most resembles Gray's 12-year-old booking photo — said the family is not interested in discussing why they continue to defy authorities. Nor are they inclined to say how long they can hold out.
"We're doing all right," the older man said curtly, adding that the family tends a sizable garden on the property that yields much of their food. A herd of goats, fish from the adjacent Trinity River and wild game help fill their pantry.
For the duration of the brief exchange, a stilted conversation at the fence line, the older bearded man does much of the talking as the others look on, their weapons hanging from worn gun belts and shoulder slings. The weapons, he said, are necessary to keep "trespassers" off their land, suggesting that would include unwelcome visits from law enforcement. He is most adamant, though, in his refusal to discuss the circumstances that have resulted in his unusual standoff with local law enforcement.
"Everybody knows the government controls the media," he said.
Gray fled here, according to Thomas, Lowe and Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt, after the now-63-year-old man was released on bond in connection with the 1999 alleged assault on Trooper Cleland.
During a routine traffic stop in neighboring Anderson County, Thomas said Cleland saw a .357-caliber handgun in the car and reached for it, sparking a struggle with Gray that spilled onto the roadway. During the struggle, Thomas said, Gray "bit a plug" of flesh out of Cleland's arm.
A search of the vehicle produced some rambling anti-government writings, including references to setting off a bomb on a highway overpass near Dallas.
Gray denied any part in a bomb plot; he was indicted, instead, for the alleged assault. Gray was released on bond, partly on his promise that he would have no access to weapons while free awaiting a hearing. Gray never returned to answer the charge.
Nutt, the fourth sheriff to hold office in the county where Gray is holed up, said he is comfortable not forcing Gray's hand. That decision, he said, is largely informed by the consequences of the federal raid on a Waco compound housing the Branch Davidian religious sect and its leader, David Koresh. Federal agents stormed the property in search of weapons in February 1993, leading to a 51-day standoff, ending in a conflagration that left 80 dead and inspired McVeigh. The specter of that tragedy still looms large here, where the Gray property lies about 80 miles east of Waco.
"I'm reluctant to talk about (the Gray case) much," said Nutt, a former Texas Ranger who was dispatched to Waco at the time. "I just don't want to stir things up."
That's not to say Nutt has ignored the current standoff. A thick file holds a pile of documents related to the Grays. It's believed that seven children live among the 15 people on the property, the sheriff said. Nutt won't discuss any law enforcement surveillance of the compound, although they know sympathizers occasionally drop off food and supplies. The sheriff also believes the family has access to a ham radio, maybe a generator.
The sheriff is not comfortable discussing much more, except to emphasize the strong belief that his department would not have the "firepower" to sustain a prolonged siege to forcibly remove Gray.
"Some of our officers would be killed, mostly likely," he said.
No taxation
Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, which has closely examined the Gray case, said the family adheres to sovereign beliefs, an ideology that is attracting an increasing number of followers in the U.S.
The sovereigns are regarded as a subset of the patriot groups and share much of the same ideology, including a rejection of the government's taxing authority. The Grays, according to local court records, owe nearly $20,000 in back property taxes. Citing the same fears expressed by law enforcement officials, the county has stopped attempts at collection.
"This is a widespread ideology," the FBI's McArthur said.
Potok and other analysts believe the financial crisis, triggered partly by the collapse of the housing market, is chiefly responsible for the movement's expansion.
This notion is based on a flurry of federal prosecutions against so-called "tax defiers," suspects in debt elimination schemes and others who have sought to enrich themselves or retaliate against local government officials by filing false property liens and lawsuits seeking outrageous monetary judgments.
Last summer, two New York men, Ed Parenteau, 54, and Jeffrey Burfeindt, 48, pleaded guilty in federal court to attaching fraudulent liens against personal and public property, totaling $135 billion. The motive, according to court records: The pair was "displeased" after local police arrested them on simple trespassing charges.
This week, David Stone, 47, and his son, Joshua Stone, 23, both members of the Hutaree militia, pleaded guilty in a Michigan federal court to possessing illegal machine guns, after a judge dismissed more serious charges that they and other militia members had plotted to attack federal government officials.
The danger ahead
In wake of his son's murder, Paudert, the former West Memphis police chief, is now assisting the Justice Department in a national campaign to prepare law enforcement officials for potential violent encounters with sovereign followers.
Had such information been available in 2010, Paudert said his officers might have recognized the looming danger when avowed sovereign Jerry Kane and his son, Joe, presented them with unusual paperwork indicating the vehicle was registered to the "Kingdom of Heaven."
Minutes later, the Kanes opened fire on the officers and sped away, leaving young Paudert's body on a freeway exit ramp and Evans in a nearby ditch. The Kanes were later killed in a confrontation with police.
"I wish I could have done more to prepare them for what they faced that day," Paudert said.
‘Sovereign’ President' .. Tim Turner says his ‘Republic for the united States’ is all about peaceful change. But recent events have authorities worried
By Ryan Lenz
On June 19, 2011, a police officer responding to a domestic violence call shot and killed William Foust, a prominent businessman who ran a marine outfitter with his wife in Page, Ariz. The death was unfortunate — a police call that soured as Foust tried to wrestle away the officer’s Taser during an argument. But it opened a window on Foust and the antigovernment group he helped lead in Arizona.
Foust, it turned out, was a principal of the so-called “Republic for the united States of America” (RuSA) — an Alabama-based organization that in the last year has grown in lockstep with the explosive rise of the “sovereign citizens” movement. .. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/ideology/sovereign-citizens-movement .. In Arizona, Foust was RuSA’s “chief justice,” the man designated to serve as the state’s leading legal officer once the group, as it hopes, finally comes to power.
As part of a shadow government created by the "Republic for the united States of America," William Foust was designated the "chief justice" for Arizona. He was killed in June during an altercation with a police officer who responded to a domestic disturbance call.
Conceived during a private meeting last year at a guest ranch in Spring City, Utah, RuSA may now be America’s most prominent group of sovereign citizens, people who believe they are immune from most federal laws and taxes. It certainly is the most ambitious, with preparations to build a national government-in-waiting and 50 state governments well under way. It promises freedom from taxes and other government meddling to all who sign up. And if RuSA’s views seem merely bizarre in the extreme, the Department of Homeland Security nevertheless has warned that some of its demands could be interpreted “as a justification for violence.”
Foust, apparently pumped up with fears of an evil government, certainly seems to have felt that he needed to use violence to resist the officers who responded to reports of a heated argument between him and his wife. And now, reacting to the “execution” of Foust, some members of RuSA are suggesting a response in kind, a notion that worries RuSA’s leader, who frequently denounces violence.
“Many feel angry and may want revenge,” James Timothy Turner, 55, told his followers three days after Foust’s killing this summer. “This is understandable, but this was an isolated incident and will not cause any problems.”
Turner has outlined a plan to “reinhabit” the U.S. government, which he says has been unlawful ever since the Civil War. He describes it as “a bold, achievable strategy for behind-the-scenes peaceful reconstruction of the de jure institutions of government without controversy, violence or civil war.” But in March 2010, RuSA sent letters to all 50 state governors demanding they step down immediately, causing at least one state to beef up security at the capitol, and there apparently are new plans to send similar letters to more than 5,000 sheriffs nationwide. That, plus the fact that sovereign citizens unrelated to RuSA have engaged in numerous crimes, including the murder of two Arkansas police officers in May 2010, has raised concerns.
RuSA, which has gotten the attention of authorities in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida and other states, teaches a whole panoply of practices typical of the sovereign citizens movement — the filing of fraudulent property liens against enemies, ways to halt the foreclosure process and cancel debts, and arcane methods that are intended to wrest millions of dollars from the federal government — all while claiming that the current United States government is utterly illegitimate. But some of what Turner has to say is far out even by the standards of the sovereigns.
“Get ready to hear things that sound absolutely impossible,” Turner’s chief spokesman, Kelby Smith, says regularly at the start of a weekly conference call to several hundred followers that was monitored by the Intelligence Report this spring over a period of several months. All of these impossible things come compliments of one man — a former commercial fisherman and devout evangelical Christian from Skipperville, Ala., who is known to his followers as “Mr. President.”
Tim Turner, a former commercial fishermen known to followers as “Mr. President,” has outlined a plan to “reinhabit” the U.S. government. He also claims the government has tried to assassinate him and that all industrialized nations have treaties with aliens. FROM YOUTUBE
Birth of a ‘Republic’
Tim Turner burst onto the sovereign citizens scene in 2007, offering a series of highly popular seminars that promised attendees they could pay off their mortgages, credit card debts, and income tax bills using the “power of negative averment” — a technique of turning statements into questions in a bid to shift the burden of argument to opponents. The programs cost an average of around $400 and came with a package of “Freedom Documents,” which were forms and instructions for the filing of bogus liens and dozens of other pseudo-legal documents.
Turner taught clients to file such groundless court documents and, when the opposing parties didn’t respond accordingly, to file absurdly large retaliatory property liens against them. In one foreclosure case in which Turner was not even a party, he personally filed nine baseless liens totaling more than $158 billion against bank and court officials. While he told followers that he won the case, the truth was that the court had actually slammed Turner with a $22,500 fine.
At some point, Turner became a principal in a new sovereign group called the Guardians of the Free Republics (GFR), which had been founded by, among others, Dr. Glenn Richard Unger .. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/fall/the-sovereigns-leaders-of-the-movement .. (alias “Dr. Sam Kennedy”) of Clifton Park, N.Y. Another principal, GFR “elder” Samuel Lynn Davis of Boise, Idaho, last year had $53,000 in outstanding state and federal tax liens against him; this year, Davis also was convicted on 31 counts of bank fraud and money laundering.
In March 2010, the GFR made national headlines when it mailed letters to the governors of all 50 states demanding they step down. Although the letters did not spell out what would happen if they did not, the state of Nevada, at least, decided to add metal detectors to the Capitol and closed all but one entrance. “We just decided that it was appropriate to err on the side of caution,” an official said then.
That same month, the GFR issued a rambling list of its goals and maxims that it called the Restore America Plan. It vowed to end “unjust” taxation, destroy the Internal Revenue Service, and dismiss all constitutional amendments after the 13th, which abolished slavery (the 14th made the freedmen citizens). It said a “European prince” had promised to fund a new government. “These are the words of Tim Turner,” it added, “an intelligent, courageous Sovereign man of God.”
On March 29, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent police agencies a confidential “Intelligence and Analysis Note” about the GFR’s demand that governors step down. “[L]aw enforcement should be aware that this could be interpreted as a justification for violence or other criminal actions,” it said.
That May, a veteran Sarasota, Fla., police detective heard about Turner and his promises from his brother. Det. Tom Laughlin went on to file documents in the local courthouse calling himself an “American National Sovereign.” Two weeks later, on May 20, 2010, two police officers were murdered by a pair of sovereign citizens in West Memphis, Ark., an event that drew national attention to the nature of at least some sovereigns. Laughlin was fired as a result of his filing.
Renaming the Revolution
In the months that followed, Turner cemented his leadership role in the GFR and ultimately pushed Unger out of the group. Then, in a secretive Nov. 13, 2010, gathering in Spring City, Utah, Turner and other GFR “delegates” decided to change the name of the group to the Republic for the united States of America. (Many sovereigns believe if they do not capitalize the “U” in United States, they will avoid acknowledging the federal government is legitimate and thus capitulating to it.)
This February, Turner caused a stir among his followers when he sent them a letter insisting that the future “Republic” he hopes to create will be a Christian nation — an idea that many sovereigns do not agree with. He lambasted a series of nine U.S. presidents, blaming them for everything from an exploding national debt to “rampant homosexuality” to the “intentional poisoning of our people.” And Turner focused in on President Obama: “He is not even a lawful American citizen,” he said. “He is a Muslim which [sic] are sworn to kill anyone who is not Muslim.”
Around the same time, Turner announced that he was forming a militant wing of RuSA, to be called the American Rangers. Although it’s unclear if that ever really happened, law enforcement officials near his south Alabama town said they have seen armed “marshals of the Republic” patrolling in the area.
This spring, Turner told his followers that he would soon be leaving the country to consult with prime ministers and princes in 80 countries, all of them supposedly promising to financially back Turner’s new government. On each weekly phone conference, followers asked how preparations were progressing. During one, Turner said he would be leaving “in a few days. We’ve been held up because of paperwork. … But the Lord is delivering that situation right now.”
Turner disappeared from the weekly calls in the middle of March, and his associates told followers that he had finally left the country. But local officials say he simply stayed at home with his wife on a secluded piece of property, holding meetings in a rundown mansion some 10 miles away.
Many of Turner’s followers didn’t swallow his story. They asked about the promised foreign money, and about the status of the developing Republic. Dozens left as more and more of them began to question Turner’s representations.
Turner fired back in April. “There are many out there who accuse me of being a liar,” he said. “But if every one of those people go back and analyze the words that I’ve said, I’ve not lied to anybody. … God will vindicate me on [sic] the time that I’m supposed to be vindicated, and that time is getting very near.”
Leaders of the “Republic for the united States,” which may be the most prominent antigovernment “sovereign citizens” group in the country, meet clandestinely in this mansion in Ozark, Alabama. RYAN LENZ
Impossible Things
Is James Timothy Turner a prophet or a confidence man?
It seems clear that some of his followers are beginning to suspect it’s the latter. And it’s certain that some of what Turner associate Kelby Smith refers to as “things that sound absolutely impossible” are, in fact, clearly untrue. And that’s not even counting Turner’s predictions, promises, and bogus legal theories.
Turner has said that he cured leukemia in five days.
He repeatedly regales his followers with vague but electrifying accounts of attempts to assassinate him by the federal government. “It didn’t work out so well, not for them at least,” he told followers of one supposed attempt in Virginia. “But you have to remember, these attacks, even though they appear to be personal, really don’t have anything to do with me. It’s an attack on the Republic.”
Earlier this year, he promised followers he would disclose certain “state secrets” following an economic collapse he predicted would happen by March. March came and went, but Turner never revisited the subject.
In one of his weekly calls, a follower asked Turner to explain what really happened when, as some people believe, an alien spacecraft crashed in 1947 near Roswell, N.M. His jaw-dropping reply: “I’m not going to tell you they [aliens] exist or don’t exist. What I’m going to say is every nation on Earth, or every industrialized nation on Earth at least, has a treaty with them.”
And he regularly claims to have “hundreds of thousands” of followers.
At press time, RuSA was still roiled with anger at the death of William Foust, who many Turner followers believe was purposely murdered by the police. In late June, Kelby Smith made a plea to increasingly angry acolytes. “I formally ask everybody to stand down,” Smith said. “We are a law-abiding people that simply know the truth, and our job is simply to share it, even with the cops.”
For his part, Turner keeps pressing on, apparently unfazed by the death of Foust, the bank fraud conviction of Samuel Lynn Davis, the questions about his own leadership, or even the rising talk of violence among his members.
“We may be in a hard place due to the power of the [government] that seems to care little for the law or the American people,” he wrote his followers recently. But, he said, “We will overcome their violence and oppression… . If we remain faithful to the principles even in these hard times, God is faithful and will deliver this Republic into its proper place among the governments of the world.”
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