Two ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Movement Members From Pierce County Sentenced to Prison

Two former Pierce County residents were sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for their illegal actions associated with a militant anti-government group, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.     

Kenneth Wayne Leaming, 57, of Spanaway, was sentenced to 8 years in prison for three counts of filing false liens against federal officials, and one count of harboring federal fugitives and being a felon in possession of firearms.   

His co-conspirator, former Tacoma resident David Carroll Stephenson, 57, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a single count of filing false liens against a federal official.     

Stephenson is already serving an eight-year prison sentence for tax fraud. Both men were convicted at trial in March 2013.   

"These defendants tried to mask their crimes with the cloak of free speech and beliefs,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “They thought they were immune from the law or the justice system, but now their frauds aimed at taxpayers and public servants need to come to an end. A lengthy prison term is the best way to protect the public from their schemes.”    

When investigators served a search warrant at Leaming’s Spanaway home on November 21, 2011, they found six firearms. Leaming was prohibited from possessing firearms because of a prior felony conviction of operating an aircraft without a pilot’s license.   

Investigators also determined that two wanted federal fugitives from Arkansas had been living with Leaming in his home. Finally, the search revealed that Leaming and Stephenson, who was an inmate at the time in an Arizona federal prison, had been conspiring to file liens against various federal officials including the Arizona prison warden and the head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.    

The men identify themselves as members of the ‘Sovereign Citizen’ movement.  ‘Sovereign Citizens’ profess a belief that both state and federal government entities are illegitimate. Members of this group often engaged in so-called “freedom driving,” i.e., driving about without state-required licenses, either for their vehicles or themselves.  

When contacted by local law enforcement, members of the group often bombard local officials (from the officer, to local judges, to mayors and other members of local government) with frivolous liens, false claims, and sometimes threats of violence.

Many members of this same group had previously come to the attention of federal law enforcement for engaging in various fraudulent tax schemes, wire fraud schemes, and (occasionally) inappropriate communications with various members of federal law enforcement and the judiciary.      

Two other defendants active in the Sovereign Citizen movement have already been sentenced to prison for their criminal conduct. David Russell Myrland was sentenced in 2011 to 40 months in prison for making threats against elected officials in Kirkland. 

In 2012, Timothy Garrison was sentenced to 42 months in prison for assisting in the filing of false tax returns.