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Last Updated March 8, 2000
Calendar of Conspiracy, Volume 3, Number 3: A Chronology of Anti-Government Extremist Criminal Activity, July to September 1999A Militia Watchdog Special Report
INTRODUCTION JULY July
1, 1999, North Dakota, Montana: Douglas
Allen Zander is charged with deliberate homicide for fatally shooting David
Solomon, a 47-year old black man from Spokane, Washington, at a rest stop in
western Montana, in front of Solomon’s wife and child.
The Solomons were an interracial couple, and Zander allegedly told police
that he killed Solomon because he was black. July
2, 1999, Georgia: Seven men
claiming to be “Georgia Rangers/Federal Ranger Services” are arrested for
weapons violation and, for four of the men, impersonating an officer. The men were attempting to intervene in a dispute between
Putnam County authorities and a fringe religious sect called the United
Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, which has many ties to sovereign citizen groups.
The men—Edward Lee Coughenour, Edwin Rivera, Vicente Turner, Phoenix G.
Ali, James Jordan, Reginald Banks, and Sean P. O’Neill—had clothing,
vehicles and badges that implied they had law enforcement powers.
Three of the “rangers” are convicted felons. July
2, 1999, Colorado: Derek M.
McCarty, founder of the Western Colorado Civil Rights Alliance and a
“constitutionalist,” is arrested for assaulting a Montrose County
Sheriff’s deputy. He is charged
with first-degree assault, resisting arrest, and violation of a restraining
order. The incident occurred when a
law enforcement officer attempted to arrest him for violating a restraining
order requiring McCarty to stay away from a post office in Paradox, Colorado. July
4, 1999, Illinois, Indiana: White
supremacist Benjamin Smith, a devoted follower of the World Church of the
Creator, embarks upon a shocking killing spree. Smith kills two people and wounds seven others—all ethnic
or religious minorities in Chicago, Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and
Bloomington, Indiana—before killing himself as police close in on him. July
4, 1999, California: Robert Coats
and Richard Bierd, two southern California skinheads, are charged with assault
and hate crime charges for allegedly attacking two African-American men in
Oceanside, California. July
7, 1999, Louisiana: Ku Klux Klan
organizer Greg David is charged with felony theft for stealing $6,700 from his
girlfriend’s family. David, a
resident of Plaquemine, Louisiana, is founder of a group called the Delta
Knights. He also faces unrelated
charges of raping and assaulting a black man in 1997. July
8, 1999, California: Shasta County
law enforcement officials arrest brothers Benjamin Matthew Williams and James
Tyler Williams on suspicion of killing two gay men in Happy Valley, California.
The Williams brothers are adherents of Christian Identity.
Murder charges will be filed on July 19.
The two are also suspects in arsons against Sacramento-area synagogues. July
8, 1999, Ohio: Sheriff’s deputies
from Geauga County arrest Jay Todd Webb, a white supremacist who had firebombed
a school in 1992, on parole violations. Deputies
find three firearms in his trailer and charge him with three felony counts of
illegal possession of a firearm. July
9, 1999, New Jersey: Dennis K.
Lurty, Jr., leader of White Skinhead Victory in Pemberton, New Jersey, is
sentenced to seven years in jail for illegal possession of a semiautomatic
weapon (he had previously been convicted on assault charges and was thus a
felon). July
9, 1999, Alabama: The Alabama
Supreme Court upholds a capital murder conviction and death sentence for Lynda
Lyon Block. Block and her common
law husband George Sibley, Jr., murdered an Opelika, Alabama, police officer in
1993 in one of the most notorious incidents of antigovernment extremist violence
in the early 1990s. Block and
Sibley have not recognized the authority of the courts. July
9, 1999, Pennsylvania: Ku Klux Klan
member Michael Abraham is sentenced to nine to twenty-three months in jail for
assault for a confrontation with a Pennsylvania state trooper during a Klan
rally in Somerset County. Abraham
is acquitted of several more serious charges.
Also sentenced is Donald Lee Penrod, for a term of six to twenty-three
months in jail, for making terroristic threats. July
10, 1999, Mississippi: William J.
Kelty, a Clinton, Mississippi, accountant, is sentenced to two years in prison
for sending bogus checks from the Montana Freemen to the IRS and asking for a
refund of the “overpayment.” Kelty
tells the judge, “Since I’m not guilty, I cannot possibly appear
remorseful.” Kelty had not paid taxes for 11 years. July
11, 1999, Washington: Former Aryan
Nations member Michael Roger Nelson pleads guilty to first-degree murder for
shooting a man he thought had burglarized a friend’s home. July
12, 1999, Washington: Gregory L.
McCrea, a white supremacist whom authorities discovered upon his arrest had
accumulated an incredibly large arsenal of machine guns, grenades, and pipe
bombs, pleads guilty to firearms and child pornography charges.
McCrea admitted to having had sexual conduct with as many as 1,000
children during his lifetime. The ten firearms charges and eleven child pornography charges
will be added to a dozen state charges, including eleven counts of child rape,
to which McCrea had already pled guilty. Under
the plea bargain, he faces at least 25 years in prison. July
12, 1999, Oregon: Rocky Libby, a
member of the Ku Klux Klan, pleads guilty to attempting to kill a black
Cumberland County sheriff’s deputy and is sentenced to three years in prison
for attempted murder and assault. Libby
had crashed his car head-on into the deputy’s parked patrol car. July
14, 1999, Montana: Montana Freeman
Ralph Clark pleads guilty to a felony bogus check charge relating to a 1996
incident. The plea agreement—in
which Clark did not admit guilt—results in the dropping of other charges, as
well as a seven-year suspended sentence. A
year ago, a jury deadlocked on all federal counts against Clark. July
14, 1999, Kansas: The self-declared
“governor” of Kansas, Mark Drake, is convicted of having an illegal meeting
at the state Capitol when he was sworn in as “de jure” governor on January
11 by his followers. Drake, a
leader in the sovereign citizen movement, claimed that the real governor did not
properly take his oath of office. Drake
will not serve any time in jail, having already served longer than the maximum
sentence for the misdemeanor. His
wife Paula faces trial for the same charge. July
16, 1999, Florida: Jody Mathis, a
Miami-area member of the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group,
is indicted on charges of selling a stolen shotgun to another member of the
group. Mathis had earlier been
named commander of the “White Berets,” the paramilitary arm of the
organization. July
16, 1999, Illinois: White
separatist Eric Hanson is sentenced to a year in jail for illegal possession of
a weapon. Earlier, in a related
incident, Hanson had been convicted of a hate crime for confronting and
threatening an interracial couple. July
19, 1999, Ohio: Kenwood insurance
salesman James C. Morris is sentenced to two years in prison for selling
“untax” packages to would-be tax protesters.
Morris was active in the Pilot Connection Society, at one point the
largest tax protest organization in the country. July
19, 1999, Ohio: Daniel Justice,
described by a Cincinnati newspaper as a “survivalist,” is charged with
terroristic threatening and wanton endangerment, after authorities discover a
plan to blow up the Pendleton County courthouse. An informant told police that Justice, facing a court hearing
for wanton endangerment after ramming a vehicle, planned to attack the
courthouse and kill a judge. Authorities
arrested Justice and found two pipe bombs in his sports utility vehicle.
He is later also charged with criminal possession of a destructive
device. Authorities claim that
Justice had more than two pipe bombs, but others were hidden or destroyed by
other individuals. July
20, 1999, Arizona: A Tucson
teenager is put under police guard at a hospital after blowing fingers off of
his left hand when accidentally setting a bomb off in his home. Investigators found white supremacist literature and
swastikas in his house. He is
charged with five counts of endangerment and one count of manufacturing
explosive devices. July
22, 1999, Texas: A jury sentences
white supremacist John King to death for his role in gruesomely murdering a
black man, James Byrd, Jr., by dragging him to death behind a pickup truck. July
28, 1999, Florida: A Broward County
jury finds Jules Fettu, a former leader of the white supremacist World Church of
the Creator in Florida, guilty of battery as a hate crime, for Fettu’s role as
a member of a group of skinheads who beat a father and son outside a rock
concert in 1997. The jury acquits
Fettu of the more serious crime of aggravated battery. July
29, 1999, Washington: Aryan Nations
member John Steven Yaeger is accused of aggravated assault in an arrest warrant
issued following an incident in 1998 when three Aryan Nations security guards
chased and shot at a car that had parked near their compound.
Authorities do not know where Yaeger is. July
30, 1999, North Dakota: Avone Kukla,
a tax protester and follower of the Montana Freeman, is sentenced to eighteen
months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasions.
In 1996, Kukla had attempted to pay his taxes with a bogus check
furnished by the Montana Freemen. July
30, 1999, Ohio: White supremacist
Kale Kelly is sentenced to four years in prison for illegally possessing
firearms as a convicted felon. Kelly
is a member of the Aryan Nations chapter in Ohio.
Federal agents had alleged that Kelly was assembling an arsenal for an
insurrection against the government, which he believed would declare martial law
because of the “Y2K” problem. July
30, 1999, North Carolina: A federal
judge sentences three North Carolina men to sentences of from thirty-seven to
forty-one months in prison after a jury finds them guilty of conspiracy and
procuring the preparation of false tax returns. The three men, David M. Crudup, James Sturdavant, Jr., and
Jessie L. Jackson, were leaders of a tax protest group called “We the
People,” which told people that income taxes were voluntary and offered to
prepare returns for people. July
30, 1999, Washington: Michael R.
Nelson, a former member of the white supremacist group Aryan Nations, is
sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for killing a man just hours after a
judge had sentenced Nelson to community service instead of jail time for a drug
conviction. July
31, 1999, Florida: Ray Leone is
sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for aggravated battery/hate crime,
while Guy Lombardi is sentenced to four years of probation for threatening a
witness to the attack. The two were
involved with the World Church of the Creator, a white supremacist group, and
took part in an attack on a father and son outside a rock concert (see above). AUGUST August
1, 1999, New Hampshire: The
Feminist Health Center of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is set ablaze, causing
about $12,000 in damage. It is the
eighth such attack on abortion clinics this year. August
2, 1999, Florida: Paul Allen, a
Fort Lauderdale police officer, is shot in his left hand during a scuffle with
Frank Crimi, who is charged with battery on a police officer and resisting an
officer with violence. Allen had
come to the Crimi residence about code violations and complaints from neighbors,
when Crimi accused the officer of trespassing and eventually grappled with him.
According to his ex-wife, Crimi is active in the sovereign citizen
movement and believed he did not have to obey any laws.
The charges will soon be upped to include attempted murder of a law
enforcement officer. August
4, 1999, Idaho: Aryan Nations
leader Richard Butler receives a suspended sentence and fine for interfering
with police when they went to his compound to investigate a reported stalking
incident. August
5, 1999, Alabama: White supremacist
Charles M. Butler is convicted of capital murder for his role in the beating
death of Billy Jack Gaither. Butler
and codefendant Steven Eric Mullins lured the homosexual Gaither away, beat him
to death, then burned his body. Mullins
had already pled guilty. The next
day, a judge will sentence them both to life in prison without parole.
Gaither’s family requested that they not be given the death penalty. August
6, 1999, Florida: Donald Hansard, a
former member of the World Church of the Creator, receives a four and one-half
year sentence for his part in a beating incident of a Cuban-American outside a
rock concert in 1997 (see above). August
9, 1999, California: Jennifer
Wepplo pleads guilty to having attempted to frighten grand jury witnesses during
an investigation of white supremacist Justin Merriman, charged with a 1992 rape
and murder. At Merriman’s
direction, Wepplo wrote letters to jailed members of Merriman’s Ventura County
group, the Skin Head Dogs, suggesting that a witness be “taken out.”
Another woman, Samantha Medina, pled guilty last month to a similar
charge. August
10, 1999, California, Nevada: Christian
Identity adherent and white supremacist Buford Furrow embarks upon a murderous
shooting spree at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles.
After deciding that security was too tough at several other targets,
Furrow enters the community center and sprays gunfire at the people inside,
wounding five people, all either children or elderly volunteers.
While escaping, Furrow kills an Asian-American postal worker.
Furrow said this was to be, according to the Associated Press, “a
wake-up call to America to kill Jews.” Furrow
will eventually give himself up the next day after eluding searchers and taking
a cab to Las Vegas. August
10, 1999, Idaho: Kootenai County
sheriff’s deputies arrest an Aryan Nations member, Michael Holsten, on
suspicion of aggravated battery of a peace officer, aggravated assault and
numerous traffic violations, following a car chase. Holsten has had a number of prior arrests on weapons and drug
charges. August
11, 1999, California: Antelope
Valley resident and white supremacist Dennis Butt is sentenced to 210 days in
jail for manufacturing methamphetamines. Butt
was arrested earlier in the year in connection with a hate crime assault on a
black Wal-mart employee. He was
charged only with the drug count, while two codefendants face hate crime
charges. August
11, 1999, Ohio: Salvatore Spine,
Jr., a long-time tax protester and fugitive for more than three years, is
sentenced to one-year in prison for violating parole.
In 1995 Spine, while on parole, was charged with helping a Lancaster,
Ohio, businessman hide $1.5 million in income.
Spine fled after the indictment but was captured in late 1998. August
12, 1999, Ohio: Sovereign citizen
Larry Roten is convicted of five felony counts of intimidation, two felony
counts of retaliation and five misdemeanor charges of using a sham legal
process. In 1998, after Warren
County authorities rescinded Roten’s guardianship of his 91-year old father,
Roten filed harassing lawsuits against officials involved in the case, as well
as sham legal documents. August
12, 1999, Massachusetts: John
Sweeney, the Hamilton, Massachusetts, homeowner who waged a year-long standoff
with the help of local militia members in order to keep his home from being
repossessed, is sentenced to four months in jail for ignoring a court order to
vacate the premises. August
12, 1999, California: Robert Arthur
Vandevort, a violent fugitive, is shot and killed by police officers attempting
to apprehend him in Los Angeles County. Vandevort,
with a stash of heroin and a handgun, had earlier been pulled over by a
sheriff’s deputy, but fled. He
later ambushed the deputy in a trailer park, but the officer escaped injury.
Within days, officers had tracked him to an Orange, California,
neighborhood, where he was shot to death fleeing from him.
Vandevort, a member of the white supremacist Nazi Low Riders as well as
the racist prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood, had a history of violent crimes. August
16, 1999, California: Four men are
indicted on attempted murder and conspiracy charges in Riverside County
following a St. Patrick’s Day attack by skinheads on a black mean.
The men, Daniel Glen Butler, Alan Thomas Yantis, Travis George Miskam and
Gregory Allan McDaniel, allegedly attacked the victim with a beer bottle, a
screwdriver, and a straight razor. The
indictment states that one or more of the defendants are active members and/or
associates of the Western Hammer Skinheads. August
19, 1999, Louisiana: In a unanimous
decision, the Louisiana Board of Ethics fines Governor Mike Foster the maximum
$20,000 allowed for twice violating campaign finance laws by failing to report
more than $150,000 in payments to white supremacist leader David Duke for a
computerized voter list. August
24, 1999, Arkansas, Washington: White
supremacist Kirby Kehoe is sentenced to 44 months in prison for his role in a
scheme launched by his sons to set up a white-only nation.
Kehoe earlier pled guilty to a racketeering charge.
His sons have been convicted of numerous charges, including murder. August
25, 1999, Oklahoma: Tax protester
Charlene Ruth Reddick is charged with four counts of willfully failing to file
income taxes and three counts of using a false Social Security number related to
her use of bogus trusts in order to avoid paying income taxes.
She also claimed that she was not a citizen of the United States but a
“non-resident alien.” August
26, 1999, Michigan: Militia leader
Mark Koernke is convicted of jumping bail for not showing up for a 1998 criminal
trial (the charges for which were later dropped). He faces up to four years in prison on the felony count, but
will end up escaping further jail time. August
26, 1999, Ohio: White supremacist
Chevie Kehoe (see above) is sentenced to eight years in prison for shooting at
Ohio police officers during a 1997 traffic stop in Wilmington, Ohio.
It was this highly-publicized incident that led to the capture of Kehoe
and his brother and the revelation of their scheme to establish a white only
nation. August
28, 1999, Alabama: A Foley,
Alabama, white supremacist, Chris Scott Gilliam, pleads guilty to illegal
possession of a hand grenade. Gilliam
was arrested earlier in the summer after buying ten hand grenades from an
undercover federal agent. According
to the agent, Gilliam told him that he wanted someone to kill Lon Horiuchi, the
FBI sniper at Ruby Ridge, and Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law
Center. August
30, 1999, California: The house of
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jack Komar is firebombed, burning his
porch. Three suspects, a
19-year-old, Victor Quintin Podbreger, and two 17-year-olds are arrested after
one calls in to report the attack, claiming to be white supremacists.
The alleged bombers apparently thought that Komar was Jewish.
Podbreger is charged with possession of an incendiary device,
manufacturing of an incendiary device, terrorism using an incendiary device
against a person, attempted arson, and vandalism, with hate crime enhancements
on the latter two counts. The
juveniles were jailed on one count of vandalism each with hate crime
enhancements, and conspiracy to commit arson. August
31, 1999, Florida: A bomb explodes
in a restroom in a Florida A&M University building, blowing a whole in the
wall. In a call to a television
station before the bomb goes off, a person claims responsibility, saying he
wants to kill blacks. Florida
A&M is that state’s only historically black state university. SEPTEMBER September
1, 1999, Michigan: Five
brothers—Denver, Jack, Daniel, Timothy, and Orval Russell—are convicted on
26 counts of tax-fraud related crimes. The
brothers reportedly earned about $3.3 million during 1992-1996 without reporting
any of it to the IRS. The brothers
have claimed that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over them.
A sixth defendant, Michael John Modena, who helped them create bogus
trusts, is charged with conspiracy but remains a fugitive. September
1, 1999, West Virginia: Two
brothers, Everett and Bobby Wayne Hager, are arrested in Lincoln County
following a shootout using fully automatic weapons with seven West Virginia
State Police who were searching for marijuana fields and for a reported illegal
campground. According to neighbors,
the brothers had anti-government sentiments symptomatic of those held by the
“patriot” movement, including flying the U.S. flag upside down as a symbol
of distress. Police searching their
house found weapons and survivalist literature.
County authorities closed the courthouse and welfare office because both
had previously received threats from the Hagers, stemming from a child custody
court battle. The Hagers are each
charged with seven counts of attempted murder of a state police officer and
seven counts of wanton endangerment, but the murder charges against Bobby Wayne
Hager will be dropped, as it will be determined that he was already in police
custody when Everett Hager began firing on police. September
6, 1999, Pennsylvania, New York: Two
skinheads, Paul Minton and Keith Pearce, Jr., are alleged to have beaten another
skinhead to death in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Reportedly the victim angered the others by talking about cannibalism and
necrophilia. They will eventually
be tracked down and arrested in New York City. September
8, 1999, Texas: San Antonio
chiropractor and tax protester Dennis Shaver pleads guilty to four counts of tax
evasion, after not only refusing to pay taxes for four years, but also
attempting to charge the federal government $1,500 an hour for preparing his own
tax returns. Shaver was a sovereign
citizen who claimed to be a citizen of the “Texas Republic.” September
9, 1999, California: White
supremacist Jennifer Wepplo is sentenced to one year in jail for writing letters
to prisoners that urged them to harm people who had testified against a friend,
fellow white supremacist Justin Merriman, charged with rape and murder (see
above). September
9, 1999, Washington: Tax protester
Randall L. Glessner is convicted of 23 counts of aiding and abetting the
preparation of false income tax returns. Glessner
claims he is not a citizen of the United States, but rather of the Kingdom of
Yahweh. September
9, 1999, Utah: A Beaver County
sheriff’s deputy is severely wounded in a confrontation during an attempt to
evict a group of tax protesters from their compound.
Deputy John Chambers is wounded in the leg and a police dog is killed.
Three of the extremists are arrested, while another group of them escape
by car. The group, the Immanuel Foundation and Fraternity of
Preparation, had declared itself sovereign from local, state and federal
governments and refused to pay all taxes. Chambers
is allegedly shot—the bullet severed arteries and inflicted severe damage—by
Tony Alexander Hamilton, who is arrested and held on two counts of first-degree
attempted aggravated murder, third-degree aggravated assault, and misdemeanors
for killing the dog, interfering with an arresting officer and criminal
trespass. September
10, 1999, Indiana: An arson attack
on Our Lady’s Chapel in the Meadow, near Edinburgh, Indiana, is claimed by an
anonymous caller to be a retaliation for government actions at Waco.
The caller claims there will be more assaults.
A previous arson attempt had occurred on September 2.
The historical chapel was built by Italian prisoners of war during the
Second World War. September
10, 1999, Ohio: Common law activist
Larry Roten receives four years in prison following his conviction for having
filed sham legal documents against government officials, intimidation, and
retaliation. September
13, 1999, California: White
supremacist Shaun Lee Broderick, a member of the Nazi Low Riders, is convicted
of three felony drug charges, including conspiracy to manufacture
methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine for sale, and possession of
pseudoephedrine. After Broderick
was arrested in Lancaster for a March 1999 attack on a black Wal-Mart employee,
investigators searching his motel room found evidence of
a drug laboratory. He awaits
trial on attempted murder. September
14, 1999, Idaho: Koreen Morgan of
Rexburg, Idaho, is indicted on four counts of making false claims against the
government by using bogus financial instruments obtained from the Montana
Freemen in order to pay $6.8 million in federal tax payments. September
16, 1999, Oregon: Joshua Rynearson
of Enterprise, Oregon, is arrested on charges of manufacturing a destructive
device, possessing a destructive device, and unlawful paramilitary activity.
The twenty-year old is thought to have been involved in a suspected
militia group. September
16, 1999, California: Militia
activist Donald Rudolph is sentenced in Sacramento to thirty months in prison
for possession of a fully automatic machine gun. September
17, 1999, North Carolina, Texas: North
Carolina Klansman Jimmy Ray Shelton is convicted in Bastrop, Texas, on two
counts of attempted capital murder for trying to kill two police officers during
a car chase in March 1999. He is
sentenced to ninety-nine years in jail. Shelton
was a former leader of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, until he formed
his own group, the Confederate Ghost Knights of the KKK.
September
17, 1999, Nevada, Louisiana: Frank
D. Alexander pleads guilty to having mailed bombs from Morgan, Louisiana, his
home, to President William Clinton; to the Las Vegas office of the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and to San Antonio evangelist John Hagee.
Two bombs exploded while in the care of the Postal Service, but no one
was injured. A third was recovered
at a Greyhound bus terminal. Alexander
was charged with attempted murder, mailing injurious articles and use of a
firearm in a crime of violence. Alexander
told investigators he admired Timothy McVeigh and Theodore Kaczynski. September
20, 1999, Texas: White supremacist
Lawrence Russell Brewer is convicted of capital murder for his role in the
dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., near Jasper, Texas, in 1998. September
24, 1999, Virginia: Coretta and
Elizabeth Hill, wives of white supremacist drug dealers Kevin and Kalvin Hill,
are sentenced to two years in prison for conspiring to distribute less of an
ounce of marijuana to juveniles. The
two women played supporting roles in the drug-dealing activities of their
husbands, who distributed more than 2,400 pounds of marijuana in the Richmond
area, as well as LSD. The Hill
brothers were adherents of Christian Identity and were sentenced to 12 years in
prison for drug offenses and a hate crime against a local synagogue. September
25, 1999, Ohio: Sovereign citizens
Joan Susan Bowman and Richard A. Lewis are arrested for forgery for having
attempted to buy eight Cadillacs with a bogus “sight draft” in northeastern
Ohio. The two were practicing a
scheme sweeping the country in 1999 called “Redemption,” in which various
pseudolegal maneuvers are used to justify the manufacture of fictitious
financial instruments. September
26, 1999, California: Skinheads
Shaun Lee Broderick and Christopher Crawford are sentenced to eight years in
prison each after pleading no contest to attacking a black Wal-Mart employee in
Lancaster, California. September
28, 1999, California, Idaho: Aryan
Nations security guard John Yaeger is arrested in southern California.
Yeager, who will be extradited to Idaho, is one of three Aryan Nations
members who allegedly chased down and shot a woman and her son who stopped in
front of the Aryan Nations compound in July 1998. September
28, 1999, Florida: Milton McIlwain,
a Pine Hills dentist, is convicted on tax evasion charges, as is his secretary,
Wanza Webb. Webb, a longtime tax
protester, allegedly convinced McIlwain to also become active in the movement.
The two used various mechanisms, including bogus trusts, to evade the
IRS. September
28, 1999, Pennsylvania: Allentown
roofer Lance A. Viola, who claimed he was a citizen of the “Pennsylvania
Republic” and did not have to pay taxes, enters into a plea agreement with the
federal government on various charges related to nonpayment of more than $80,000
in taxes. Viola faces up to ten
years in jail and a $500,000 fine. September
29, 1999, North Carolina: Peter Kay
Stern, a leader of the sovereign citizen movement in North Carolina, and who had
formed his own “common law court,” is indicted on charges of conspiring to
defraud the IRS related to his having used bogus money orders obtained from the
Montana Freeman in order to pay his income tax debts and obtain a false refund.
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