Man is not his own island
A criminal complaint filed by a Vancouver man who didn’t want to pay his traffic tickets was dismissed last Friday.
Jon Dessert filed the complaint in a Tacoma federal court on Jan. 4, claiming that he’s a sovereign free man, “not subject to statute traffic infractions.”
He claimed $5.4 million in damages based on the state’s denial of his rights as his own private Idaho.
His laundry list of wrongdoers included Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, Sheriff Garry Lucas, district court judges, and city and prosecuting attorneys.
The courts didn’t buy his sovereign man argument and summarily dismissed the case. Similar claims made by an Amboy resident were also dismissed.
The Vancouver City Council had to approve money to be spent to defend Leavitt, but City Attorney Ted Gathe said Thursday not much staff time — less than five hours — was used in the case.
UPDATE from Stephanie Rice:
Another unsuccessful sovereign, David Darby of Amboy, had two federal court cases dismissed Feb. 10, both by Settle.
Darby’s first case was against two Lewis County judges, two Washington State Patrol troopers and two state officials. Darby was stopped by a trooper in Lewis County and cited for driving with an expired license. Darby told the trooper he was not subject to state laws because of his sovereign status.
You should know by now how that argument went over with Judge Settle.
The second tossed case was against just about every official in Clark County.
“Although the complaint is mostly incomprehensible, it appears that Darby alleges that these state actors have conspired to deprive Darby of his sovereignty and sovereign property rights,” Settle wrote. “Darby filed a ‘land patent’ with the Clark County Auditor, Greg Kimsey, and requested that his property be removed from the tax rolls. Mr. Kimsey denied Darby’s request. Darby claims $15.6 million in damages as a commercial lien against the corporation Washington state,” Settle wrote.
“The basic premise of Darby’s complaint is that the state is a corporate entity, which is not the law and is wholly without merit,” Settle wrote.
