've heard some strange criminal defense theories. But when John F. Gibson claimed in Greene County Court he was innocent of fraud because of a vast conspiracy that consumed all levels of government, I took special note.
I grew more intrigued when I discovered other nearby residents believed in the same conspiracy. So much so, that they have created their own court — complete with judges and clerks — and hold their own hearings, issue their own arrest warrants and render their own verdicts.
A group of harmless kooks, I thought at first. Then Prosecutor Dan Patterson, as well as others, warned these groups can be dangerous.
Patterson called them "sovereign citizens," loosely associated groups throughout the country who share a common belief that the government lacks legitimate authority. Many times, individuals involved with sovereign citizen groups try to subvert government authority and harm those who they view as assisting the government.
And they are not somebody else's problem. They live here. I talked to one of them and listened as she unraveled a scary and complicated conspiracy rife with official deceit that, she believes, has enslaved the American public.
"It is a serious thing," Sheriff Jim Arnott told me.
"Sovereign citizen groups in other parts of the country have killed law enforcement."
Police Chief Paul Williams told me he is aware that sovereign citizen groups are operating in southwest Missouri and "like all extremists groups, they can be dangerous."
Bridgett Patton, spokeswoman for the FBI's Kansas City office, acknowledged federal agents are aware these groups are in the state. She declined to say if any are being investigated for criminal activity, but she added agents are not monitoring individuals based solely on affiliation with sovereign citizen groups.
She noted a 2010 federal court case in which members of a sovereign citizen group near Kansas City were convicted of making fake diplomatic credentials. They made 3-inch by 4-inch laminated cards, which identified the bearer as an "Ambassador." The cardholder, they claimed, would enjoy sovereign status, diplomatic immunity and would no longer have to pay taxes or be subject to being stopped, detained, or arrested by police.
I opened up John F. Gibson's case file and found similar "certifications." Gibson, it appears, renounced citizenship of the country, state, county and city of Springfield. In doing so, he believed, he removed himself from the court's jurisdiction.
Gibberish is the best way to describe a lot of Gibson's court filings. Best I could tell, Gibson believes the courts, and other government entities, have been taken over by international corporate interests.
Buried in Gibson's file were several documents from the "International State Environmental Court," a group that apparently convenes in Taney County. This is the fake court I was telling you about earlier.
Perusing these documents, I stumbled across a phone number with a 417 area code and a name.
It rang three times before it was answered by Sandra Karen, fake clerk of the fictitious court.
"Most people call me Sandy," she said.
She had a nice voice and pleasant demeanor, a middle-aged woman who often spoke faster than I could type.
I asked her to help me understand the court, the renunciations, the conspiracies.
This is where things got weird.
She said the courts we see as legitimate are anything but.
"You can't take any facts in there," she said.
"They have no authority. They are a criminal enterprise."
Then she really got going.
The U.S. Congress passed some law in 1972 that had something to do with wastewater. The law was actually written in code, she said, but some guy was able to interpret it.
This and other laws apparently created two Americas, one for the people and one for corporations.
Early whistleblowers apparently sent notices to several organizations, "the IMF, the U.N., the Coast Guard."
The conversation then took a sharp turn to obscurity, though I got the sense Sandy believed each point logically led to the next.
"Every bit of water you drink is toxic," she told me, adding: "What does EPA stand for? Environmental Protection Agency. But they are only protecting themselves."
"The U.S. government is not a government. It's a corporation."
"All these officials are going to get arrested."
"Illuminati... depopulation... Fluoridation... chemtrails..."
Unable to keep up with Sandy's meandering web of conspiracy, I steered the conversation back to the courts.
Again she described the Greene County Court, and others, as entirely illegitimate.
"They've pretended to be a court for so long that people began to believe it," she said.
Next, Sandy said the most ironic thing I've ever heard: "Just because you believe something, doesn't mean it's real."
Ditto, I thought.
I told Sandy what I had learned about sovereign citizen groups. I asked if she or her similarly minded friends were dangerous.
What she said next surprised me: "I absolutely agree that sovereign citizen groups are dangerous." But, she added, members of her group do not identify with the sovereign citizen movement.
"We are not anti-government," she said.
"We just want to see government cleaned up. We are not evil. We are good people."
The difference, to me, seems to be your point of reference. Sandy believes government/corporate agents are purposefully poisoning our water, food and air. Living in that reality might make a lot of actions seem justified.
But could someone like Sandy, such a sweet and patient lady, actually be capable of violence? That's hard for me to believe.
Then again: "Just because you believe something, doesn't mean that it's real."
These are the views of Jess Rollins, the News-Leader's metro columnist. Rollins, a lifelong resident of the Ozarks, has covered cops, courts, city government and other topics for the News-Leader over the last four years.
