International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation Volume 6 2023 126
Both Belford and David Matusiewicz were to appear
in court on the morning of February 11, 2013, for a
child support hearing. That day, David Matusiewicz
and his father Thomas arrived early at the courthouse.
They brought ammunition, a bulletproof vest, knives,
restraints of various sizes, photographs of their targets,
and electronic shocking devices (Department of Justice,
2015). At the behest of his son, Thomas Matusiewicz
shot and killed Belford and her companion Laura
Mulford in the lobby of the New Castle County
Courthouse in Delaware (U.S. v. Matusiewicz, 2015).
Thomas Matusiewicz then took his own life. For
their actions, David Matusiewicz, his mother Lenore
Matusiewicz, and his sister, Amy Gonzalez, were
convicted of cyberstalking resulting in death in 2015.
These represented the first-ever federal convictions of
defendants for cyberstalking leading to death in the
history of the United States (Department of Justice,
2015). The offenders were sentenced to life in prison
(Department of Justice, 2015). Those convictions and
sentences were reaffirmed in 2018 (Department of
Justice, 2018).
III. The Sovereign Citizen/QAnon leaders
A number of new leaders, or “guru” figures have
recently emerged who combine sovereign citizen and
QAnon theories and conspiracies. All promise special
status by becoming ASNs. Bobby Lawrence appears
to be the chief ASN theorist, and has also engaged
elements of the January 6, 2021, Washington DC capital
attack population. The other leading ASN gurus are a
husband-and-wife duo, David and Bonnie Straight.
A. Correcting Your Status Becoming an American
State National (ASN)
Lawrence operates a Telegram group that shares
information with members about how to become an
ASN. The process involves “correcting your status,” the
supposed means by which individuals can disconnect
themselves from the Amendment 14 “corporate”
system. This idea stems from the belief that the United
States federal government is a corporation, its citizens
are employees of the corporation, and if one renounces
that citizenship, then an ASN is supposedly no longer
subject to the laws of the United States (Kalinowski,
2019). Lawrence’s website is frequently advertised on a
message board where--if one is willing to pay substantial
amounts of money--one can subscribe to a multi-
level process and become an ASN. Each step in the
process is fee-based. Money collected is a “donation.”
ASN promoters also sell “Freedom Bundles” that range
in price from $175 to $500. These bundles provide
documents and instructions on how to become an ASN.
Though ASNs do not consider themselves to be
sovereign citizens, their ideas are very similar to those
of the sovereign citizen movement. For example, in
April 2022, Lawrence appeared at a QAnon “Patriots
Arise” conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and
gave a speech that had shades of both sovereign citizen
and QAnon ideas (Right Wing Watch, 2022). Lawrence
explained that, “historically speaking,” when a child is
born, a satanic ritual takes place, an uncommonly held
belief. Specifically:
Lawrence’s scheme, that birth processes and
documents have financial significance, is a variation of
the “Strawman Theory” concept common among both
sovereign citizen and pseudolaw adherents (Netolitzky,
2018a Netolitzky, 2018b). Viewed from this perspective,
Lawrence seems to suggest that newborn children are,
in effect dead vessels, identified by names that appear
in all capital letters, and thus are subject to government
authority. Interestingly, Netolitzky (2018a) observed
that the Strawman Theory has strong parallels to both
demonic possession and exorcism traditions. This
narrative is derived from sovereign citizen schemes
circulating since 2000, but with some superficial novel
trappings.
...a child was smacked on the butt, turned upside
down and cried out in fear and pain and before
the child could put their feet on the land and
take the breath of God as a free creation of God,
a legal bond document came out it’s on bond
paper it’s on bond paper because it’s a banking
instrument, it’s a surety bond, and the child’s
soul was taken on the back of that document. It
was called the soul print, and then the umbilical
cord and the afterbirth was thereby dead and
abandoned by the mother and because that was
part of your birth, part of you being born, the
construct, the evil [sic] says now that is dead, a
part of you died, and now you’re a dead vessel,
you’re in all capital legal fiction ...(Neiwert,
2022b Right Wing Watch, 2022).
Both Belford and David Matusiewicz were to appear
in court on the morning of February 11, 2013, for a
child support hearing. That day, David Matusiewicz
and his father Thomas arrived early at the courthouse.
They brought ammunition, a bulletproof vest, knives,
restraints of various sizes, photographs of their targets,
and electronic shocking devices (Department of Justice,
2015). At the behest of his son, Thomas Matusiewicz
shot and killed Belford and her companion Laura
Mulford in the lobby of the New Castle County
Courthouse in Delaware (U.S. v. Matusiewicz, 2015).
Thomas Matusiewicz then took his own life. For
their actions, David Matusiewicz, his mother Lenore
Matusiewicz, and his sister, Amy Gonzalez, were
convicted of cyberstalking resulting in death in 2015.
These represented the first-ever federal convictions of
defendants for cyberstalking leading to death in the
history of the United States (Department of Justice,
2015). The offenders were sentenced to life in prison
(Department of Justice, 2015). Those convictions and
sentences were reaffirmed in 2018 (Department of
Justice, 2018).
III. The Sovereign Citizen/QAnon leaders
A number of new leaders, or “guru” figures have
recently emerged who combine sovereign citizen and
QAnon theories and conspiracies. All promise special
status by becoming ASNs. Bobby Lawrence appears
to be the chief ASN theorist, and has also engaged
elements of the January 6, 2021, Washington DC capital
attack population. The other leading ASN gurus are a
husband-and-wife duo, David and Bonnie Straight.
A. Correcting Your Status Becoming an American
State National (ASN)
Lawrence operates a Telegram group that shares
information with members about how to become an
ASN. The process involves “correcting your status,” the
supposed means by which individuals can disconnect
themselves from the Amendment 14 “corporate”
system. This idea stems from the belief that the United
States federal government is a corporation, its citizens
are employees of the corporation, and if one renounces
that citizenship, then an ASN is supposedly no longer
subject to the laws of the United States (Kalinowski,
2019). Lawrence’s website is frequently advertised on a
message board where--if one is willing to pay substantial
amounts of money--one can subscribe to a multi-
level process and become an ASN. Each step in the
process is fee-based. Money collected is a “donation.”
ASN promoters also sell “Freedom Bundles” that range
in price from $175 to $500. These bundles provide
documents and instructions on how to become an ASN.
Though ASNs do not consider themselves to be
sovereign citizens, their ideas are very similar to those
of the sovereign citizen movement. For example, in
April 2022, Lawrence appeared at a QAnon “Patriots
Arise” conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and
gave a speech that had shades of both sovereign citizen
and QAnon ideas (Right Wing Watch, 2022). Lawrence
explained that, “historically speaking,” when a child is
born, a satanic ritual takes place, an uncommonly held
belief. Specifically:
Lawrence’s scheme, that birth processes and
documents have financial significance, is a variation of
the “Strawman Theory” concept common among both
sovereign citizen and pseudolaw adherents (Netolitzky,
2018a Netolitzky, 2018b). Viewed from this perspective,
Lawrence seems to suggest that newborn children are,
in effect dead vessels, identified by names that appear
in all capital letters, and thus are subject to government
authority. Interestingly, Netolitzky (2018a) observed
that the Strawman Theory has strong parallels to both
demonic possession and exorcism traditions. This
narrative is derived from sovereign citizen schemes
circulating since 2000, but with some superficial novel
trappings.
...a child was smacked on the butt, turned upside
down and cried out in fear and pain and before
the child could put their feet on the land and
take the breath of God as a free creation of God,
a legal bond document came out it’s on bond
paper it’s on bond paper because it’s a banking
instrument, it’s a surety bond, and the child’s
soul was taken on the back of that document. It
was called the soul print, and then the umbilical
cord and the afterbirth was thereby dead and
abandoned by the mother and because that was
part of your birth, part of you being born, the
construct, the evil [sic] says now that is dead, a
part of you died, and now you’re a dead vessel,
you’re in all capital legal fiction ...(Neiwert,
2022b Right Wing Watch, 2022).
