A high-ranking Scientologist has been arrested in Las Vegas in a strange plot to kidnap and kill a local law enforcement officer.

According to her LinkedIn profile and numerous online records, Devon Campbell Newman, 67, was appointed to the position of public relations director of the Scientology Celebrity Center in Las Vegas in 2010 and held the post until the present day. But as a result of a police investigation stretching back to April, Newman and a 42 year-old six-time felon and registered sex offender named David Allen Brutsche were arrested this Tuesday — for planning to kidnap and kill a local police officer — all in a publicity stunt to promote their “sovereign citizen” views.

Although the arrest made news immediately, the Scientology connection was not known until a Las Vegas television journalist tipped Gawker with the information about Newman’s involvement in the church. Newman gave a jailhouse interview (link here) to 8 News Now in the wake of her arrest before her Scientology connections were revealed.

According to the arrest report, the pair belonged to a “sovereign citizen movement” and claimed to reject U.S. laws. A Las Vegas counter-terrorism unit had been conducting an investigation of Newman and Brutsche since April.

Both had expressed a deep-seated hatred for law enforcement officers and planned to kidnap a police officer from a traffic stop, according to the report. They planned to place the officer in a makeshift jail and try the officer in a sovereign court of law for treason and civil rights violations. The officer would be convicted and then executed.

According to Gawker, It was Newman’s job to promote events at Scientology’s Celebrity Center. Newman has also been an active part of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada, representing Scientology’s views at council events.

In November of 2011, the council held a discussion on evolution. Below is Newman’s presentation.