International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 6 2023 124
A new emerging trend is an overlap between QAnon
and the sovereign citizen movement. In January
2022, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described
high-profile members of QAnon appearing in videos
circulating on social media, discussing their adoption
of sovereign citizen ideas (ADL, 2022). For instance,
Ann Vandersteel, a Pizzagate proponent, encouraged
her followers to become “American State Nationals”
(ASNs), a new strain of sovereign citizen ideology
(ADL, 2022) that will be discussed in more detail below.
Vandersteel now teaches classes on how to become an
ASN (Ann Vandersteel Oregon event, 2022).
The ADL also noted the merger of these two conspiracy
ideas by Bobby Lawrence, who regularly gives for-pay
seminars to teach others how to become an ASN. He
and the other leader of the ASN movement, David
Straight, have been intermixing these ideas at weekly
seminars (described in further detail below) for the
past several years.
This hybridization of sovereign citizen and QAnon
conspiracy systems is also occurring in other countries.
Canadian Romana Didulo is another high-profile
QAnon figure who also combines these two ideologies.
Known as the “QAnon Queen,” Didulo is a conspiracy
figure with a large following who falsely believe that
she is the queen, commander-in-chief, and the national
indigenous chief of Canada (Sarteschi, 2022a). Didulo
and approximately 11 of her closest followers travel
Canada in a recreational vehicle (RV). She espouses
many conspiratorial beliefs. Chief among them is
Didulo’s contention that tunnels under Canada, the
United States, and Mexico are used for adrenochrome
production, organ harvesting, and child sex trafficking
(Netolitzky, 2022b Sarteschi, 2022a Sarteschi, 2023).
Her legal beliefs are distinctly sovereign citizen/pseudo
legal in nature. Didulo contends that Canada is a
corporation that went bankrupt in 2017, that lawyers
lack the proper jurisdiction to practice law in the
country of Canada, and that courts and judges have no
jurisdiction over her. Most fallacious is her belief that
she has replaced the legitimate Canadian government
and is now its sole, legitimate government monarch
(Sarteschi, 2022a).
The 2022 plot to overthrow the German government
is another international example of the ever-increasing
overlap between QAnon and the sovereign citizen
belief. All 25 of the persons arrested were members of
the Reichsbürger, also known as Reich citizens, who--
like American sovereign citizens--reject the authority
of their legitimate government, and believe they do
not have to pay taxes or other debts (Ritzmann, 2023).
German authorities seized 97 guns, in excess of 25,000
rounds of ammunition, tactical gear and weaponry,
cash, and precious metals (Ritzmann, 2023). To date,
this operation was the “largest anti-terror raid ever” in
Germany (Hume, 2022).
Reichsbürgers are considered anti-state, highly
dangerous, and have a high affinity for weapons and
violence (Baden-Württemberg: “Reichsbürger” hits
the police with a car -the court imposes many years
of imprisonment, 2023). In the first-ever federal
prosecution of a Reich citizen in Germany, a 62-year-old
man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attacking
a police officer with his vehicle. The judges in the case
concluded that the perpetrator had committed the crime
in accordance with his ideology (Baden-Württemberg:
“Reichsbürger” hits the police with a car -the court
imposes many years of imprisonment, 2023). During
a subsequent series of March 2023 raids by German
authorities that targeted the Reichsbürger movement, a
German police officer was shot and wounded (Reuters
in Berlin, 2023). Prosecutors indicate that this group
also believes in QAnon ideology, including the idea
that Germany is run by the “deep state” (Times of Israel
Staff, 2022).
This article is intended to expand the knowledge base
and document the emerging overlap between QAnon
and the sovereign citizen movements, with a specific
focus on child custody cases. The intension is to
highlight the fusing of these ideas, particularly in the
context of child welfare cases where abuse has been
alleged, but also to illustrate and emphasize the danger
these groups may pose to child welfare workers. The
antagonistic relationships between parents who lose
custody of their children to Child Protection Services
(CPS), and those agencies, has been long recognized.
This antagonism is, in part, what makes the job of child
welfare workers so dangerous. Studies indicate that CPS
workers face high rates of violence. Studies typically
report that the majority of CPS workers experience
verbal harassment and threats of physical injury
(Radey, Langerderfer-Magruder, &Schelbe, 2022).
In addition, approximately 20 to 30% report being

ISSN: 2710-4028 DOI: doi.org/10.54208/1000/0006 125
physically assaulted (Radey, Langerderfer-Magruder,
&Schelbe, 2022). Researchers have observed that the
dangers of the job lie in both the nonvoluntary nature
of the agency contact, and the unpredictable nature
of the environments in which the contacts take place
(Radey, Langerderfer-Magruder, &Schelbe, 2022).
Social assistance workers are six times more likely to
experience workplace violence than other workers
(Radey &Wilke, 2021).
Research on parental custody disputes with those
employing pseudolaw tactics is limited. Slater (2016)
uncovered only five instances in which sovereign
citizens targeted “child support services” for
harassment via litigation, out of 378 sovereign citizen
court proceedings. Netolitzky (2017) investigated
parental disputes in Canadian courts that involved
pseudolaw tactics, and identified only three examples
in all reported Canadian pseudolaw caselaw. These
results suggest pseudolaw and sovereign citizen tactics
are historically uncommon in the CPS context. Much
less is known about the relationship and interactions
between CPS workers who investigate conspiracy-
oriented people who believe in sovereign citizen and
QAnon ideas. It is reasonable to assume that those
relationships also pose heightened acrimony and
danger.
A core element of QAnon conspiracy theory is that
powerful Democratic politicians are involved in the
global sex trafficking of children. QAnon theory thus
provides a political and cultural narrative that enflames
pre-existing anti-authority and anti-government biases
held by sovereign citizens. Despite the growth of these
movements, both in the United States and abroad, there
is little to no research investigating the growth of these
meritless child sex trafficking accusations by followers
of the aforementioned movements. These tactics
may be employed as a method to generate sympathy
and support from other like-minded followers, and/
or to defame the character of those involved in CPS
processes.
Part two of this article examines a pre-QAnon instance
of sovereign citizens interacting with CPS. Next, part
three of this article describes the sovereign citizen/
QAnon conspiracy figures involved in promoting
meritless, absurd claims of CPS sex trafficking children.
Part four examines actual cases of children having
been removed by CPS, due to suspected abuse or
neglect, whose parents then accused CPS of child sex
trafficking, all without evidence. In some cases, parents
resorted to violence directed toward fully innocent
CPS workers. This article documents these cases using
open-source information along with news accounts
and court material.
II. Pre-QAnon: The Matusiewicz Case
The Matusiewicz-Belford child custody dispute, which
erupted into extreme violence, is a case that predates
the emergence of QAnon, but that has remarkable
similarities to scenarios where QAnon concepts are
involved. This example shows that sovereign citizen
ideology and beliefs alone can trigger highly unfavorable
outcomes in child custody dispute scenarios. Multiple
documentaries airing on the Investigation Discovery
channel revealed that the Matusiewicz family ascribed
to sovereign citizen ideology. They stockpiled weapons,
anticipating a violent battle with the government,
which the Matusiewicz family regarded as illegitimate.
The custody problems began in 2006 when Christine
Belford and David Thomas Matusiewicz divorced and
agreed to shared custody of their three children (U.S. v.
Matusiewicz, 2015). One year later, in 2007, David and
his mother, Lenore, kidnapped the children and took
them to Nicaragua for two years (U.S. v. Matusiewicz,
2015). Federal agents returned the children in 2009.
David Matusiewicz pled guilty to parental kidnapping
and bank fraud (U.S. v. Matusiewicz, 2015).
Around that time, David Matusiewicz and his family
falsely accused Belford of sexually abusing her
children. They embarked on a four-year campaign
of stalking, surveilling, and harassing Belford. They
created fake YouTube videos, wrote emails and letters,
created a website called “A Grandmother’s Impossible
Choice” filled with allegations of abuse, and false
polygraph reports (Department of Justice, 2018).
David Matusiewicz and his family also attempted to
recruit others to aid in the surveillance of Belford and
her children (Department of Justice, 2018). Numerous
courts repeatedly found the abuse allegations against
Belford to be untrue. The courts noted that there was
“overwhelming, uncontradicted evidence that the
accusations that [Belford] sexually molested or abused
her children were false” (Department of Justice, 2018).