Donley County jury convicts ‘sovereign citizen’

A two-day district court jury trial of a self-styled “sovereign citizen” ended with a conviction at the Donley County Courthouse last Wednesday, August 30.

was found guilty for the third degree felony offense of evading arrest in a motor vehicle with a deadly weapon.

District Attorney Luke Inman, along with Assistant District Attorney Harley Caudle, prosecuted the case for the State of Texas, with the Honorable Judge Stuart Messer presiding.

Hopper, 56 from Denver, Colo., was arrested by Donley County Deputy Brian Stevens on August 8, 2022.

Hopper was indicted by the Donley County Grand Jury on December 5, 2022.

The State called three principal witnesses in its case in chief, including Carson County Chief Deputy J.C. Blackburn, Donley County Deputy Brian Stevens and Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn.

According to testimony, Hopper identifies as a “sovereign citizen,” a fringe belief that a person can exempt themselves from the authority of law enforcement by filing certain paperwork with county officials and reciting certain nonsensical incantations when interacting with law enforcement.

Stevens testified about the 10-mile pursuit, which reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour on the congested US Highway 287.

Both J.C. Blackburn and Butch Blackburn testified about the defendant’s refusal to exit the vehicle, resulting in J.C. Blackburn breaking out the window and forcibly removing Hopper in order to take him into custody.

“A lot of us have seen the ‘sovereign citizens’ videos on the internet, usually filmed by the person who thinks it’s going to work,” said Caudle. “This guy was a textbook example. When this defendant finally pulled over and ended the pursuit, instead of complying with the deputy’s commands, he slid a piece of paper out the barely cracked window and told the deputy ‘you’ve been served,’ before rolling the window back up. The paper was basically a bunch of gibberish about the defendant being a person, not a corporation, and not being required to obey traffic laws because he wasn’t traveling for commercial purposes.”

After all the evidence was presented, it only took the Donley County jury 12 minutes of deliberation to find Hopper guilty of the evading offense.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a huge uptick in these evading arrest in a motor vehicle cases in our district, and the majority of the time the defendant is someone just passing through our area,” said Inman. “I guess they think that since the police aren’t allowed to chase them where they are from, that the same is true here, and they are gravely mistaken.”

US Highway 287 runs through four of the five counties in the 100th Judicial District, and Interstate 40 runs through two of the five counties, according to Inman.

The majority of the evading cases the 100th Judicial District Attorney’s office handles comes from these two main thoroughfares, according to Inman.

According to court documents, the jury was also presented with a four-minute long video of Hopper presenting a training session at a sovereign citizen gathering that took place the day before his arrest.

In the video, Hopper instructs those present on how to interact with law enforcement if stopped for a traffic violation.

“The defendant’s ‘training session’ with the other lunatics featured him reading, essentially word-for-word, the piece of paper he poked out the window to Brian [Stevens] the following day,” said Caudle. “His advice to his audience was to ‘keep saying it over and over until they give up and get the hell away from your car.’”

Following his conviction, the jury returned to deliberate on punishment. 22 minutes later they pronounced their sentence of 10 years in a Texas prison. However, they recommended that the defendant be placed on probation, in lieu of immediate incarceration.

“We were very pleased with the jury’s verdict, sentence and input into our overall presentation of this case and their thoughts towards this Defendant,” said Inman. “I sincerely hope this Defendant’s failed experiment in how to ‘beat the system’ is the main topic of conversation at the next sovereign citizen training event or seminar or whatever they call it. Or at the very least, that the rest of the crazies know to steer clear of our part of the world.”

At separate hearing on Friday, Messer officially placed Hopper on probation and set the terms of that probationary sentence.

In addition to the standard conditions of probation, Messer ordered Hopper to serve 180 days in the Donley County Jail, the maximum allowed by law, with the sentence to begin at the conclusion of the hearing.

Messer added multiple additional conditions of probation, among them that Hopper is prohibited from operating a vehicle with a child passenger and must surrender his passport to the probation department so he cannot leave the country despite business ties to Costa Rica.

“After speaking with the jury after the trial, we knew they expected ample conditions placed on this defendant to protect everyone involved,” said Caudle. “As a ‘sovereign citizen’ who believes the law doesn’t apply to him, certain conditions were requested by the State and granted by Messer that will make this man either change his ways or find a more permanent home in the Texas criminal justice system other than the Donley County jail.”

As a further condition of probation, Messer ordered that Hopper is prohibited from associating with “persons of disreputable character,” specifically referencing individuals who advocate the illegitimacy of criminal laws.

“The standard ‘don’t associate with persons of disreputable character’ condition typically references people with felony convictions or currently on probation themselves,” said Inman. “I’m glad the judge added other ‘sovereign citizens’ to the list of people this defendant can’t associate with, because we don’t need this guy out there encouraging others to follow in his footsteps.”

If Hopper violates any of the regular or numerous additional conditions of his probation, his probation can be revoked by the Court and the defendant sent to prison to serve his 10-year sentence.