HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – “Stand at the podium and pay attention,” instructed Judge Walter Heinrich.
When 27 year old Eric Holtgard learned about our courtroom camera, he hung his head.
“Started looking through his car, started finding some guns, some other ammos, but what was really concerning was he had paperwork in there indicating he was a Sovereign Citizen,” said Larry MacKinnon, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson.
Deputies arrested Holtgard twice in 24 hours for threatening two people with a firearm and discovered a cache of weapons, an assault rifle, handguns, ballistic plates and armor-piercing ammunition in his car and at his Tampa Palms home.
“They don’t carry drivers licenses. They don’t believe in registering their vehicles. Some of them may not pay taxes,” explained MacKinnon.
“Sovereign Citizens” like Holtgard believe they’re above the law. A dangerous and subversive group, the FBI classifies as domestic terrorists.
“There are a lot of them here in the Bay Area and every time we deal with them we’re constantly having to deal with that issue that they’re adamant that they’re not subject to law, so immediately from the beginning it becomes adversarial,” said MacKinnon.
In May, another “Sovereign Citizen,” Bruce Hicks, was arrested at Plant City’s Turkey Creek Middle for bringing a gun on school property.
In a 2010 incident in West Memphis, Arkansas, two sovereign citizens from Tampa Bay opened fire on two police officers gunning them down with an AK-47 during a traffic stop all caught on dash cam video.
Terry Nichols of the Oklahoma City bombing also called himself a “Sovereign Citizen.”
Local law enforcement keeps track of “Sovereign Citizen” arrests.
“We keep databases on these subversive groups,” said MacKinnon.
Now Holtgard is on that list.
“You’re excused sir. You’ll be staying in jail without bond,” said Judge Heinrich.
demonize the sovereign citizen ,msm bullshit.
Amen Brother! Whenever they ignore the Constitution they have the corrupt court system to back them up!
The soveriegn citizen movement is not violent. The attempts at painting these people as home grown terrorists is ongoing and stems from the governments fear of “The Sheeple ” waking up. It is embarrssing that this website owner was deceived enough by the feds to re-publish this article.
Jesus had no licence ( permission) to live and move about freely. He expects real men to live as free men, not slaves. Those who submit to every whim of Uniform Commercial Code Law are fools. The cops that enforce those laws are definitely more dangerous to your health than Sovereign Citizens.
Im not a sovereign citizen. Im a real living human.