Richard Ulloa, a 52-year-old Stone Ridge man, was arrested last year with two other local members of the "sovereign citizen" movement, after filing trillions of dollars' worth of fake liens against local bankers and government officials.
This week, Ulloa was sentenced to five years in federal prison for mail fraud. The Times Herald-Record reports that Ulloa's mental-illness defense didn't hold water with the judge:
Despite being cleared by a mental-health evaluator, Ulloa's lawyer argued Monday that his client had become mentally ill sometime over the past six years.
U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy didn't buy the argument. "Somewhere along the way, you decided to follow the voice of the sovereign citizens," McAvoy told Ulloa. "You did that with reckless disregard and evil intention."
Ulloa must pay $63,401 in restitution to Ulster County and MHVFCU.
The sovereign-citizen movement has been attracting more notice from law enforcement lately. In September, the FBI issued a paper about the movement, dubbing it a growing domestic terrorist movement, and connecting it to the Oklahoma City bombing and other violent incidents.
The paper contains a guide of sorts for identifying "sovereigns":
Sovereign citizens often produce documents that contain peculiar or out-of-place language. In some cases, they speak their own language or will write only in certain colors, such as in red crayon. Several indicators can help identify
these individuals.
- References to the Bible, The Constitution of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, or treaties with foreign governments
- Personal names spelled in all capital letters or interspersed with colons (e.g., JOHN SMITH or Smith: John)
- Signatures followed by the words “under duress,” “Sovereign Living Soul” (SLS), or a copyright symbol (©)
- Personal seals, stamps, or thumb prints in red ink
- The words “accepted for value”
They also carry fraudulent drivers’ licenses to indicate their view that law enforcement does not have the authority to stop their vehicle or may write “No Liability Accepted” above their signature on a driver’s license to signify that they do not accept it as a legitimate identification document.
A post we wrote last year about Ulloa and his fellow local "sovereigns" -- Ed Parenteau and Jeffrey Burfeindt -- got noticed and linked to by an anti-government website, earning us reams of commentary from sympathizers. Alas, it was before we started using Facebook to run our comment system, which means I may never know who left us this gem:
These guys have a legal right to do what they are doing!!!!! Since ALL so-called governments, states, cities, counties, persons, etc. are CORPORATE FICTIONS and PRIVATE FOREIGN CORPORATIONS to the living they have every right to take back their fraudulent so-called government back into the hands of the living people!!! Sounds like the writer needs to read the black's law dictionary and research things before she makes herself look stupid by trying to write about something she doesn't know about!!! The living people of the world are waking up and the fictitious persons will be destroyed!!!
