Rapides judge recuses himself in sovereign citizen cases New judge already assigned to the cases

Melissa Gregory | The Town Talk

Cases against an accused sovereign citizen from Ball who tried to file trillions in fake liens against Rapides Parish public officials will continue after the judge recused himself earlier this month.

Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard recused himself from the cases of Marie Yvette Canada on Feb. 12, two days after the state and defense offered a joint motion for a continuance.

Beard's order offered no explanation for the recusal, which was not requested by either the prosecution or defense.

Her trial and hearings on several motions filed by defense attorney James Word II also were continued without date. She has been charged with 25 counts of filing false liens against law enforcement, court or state officers or state employee.

The bill of information in one case was amended Feb. 21 to add the 25th count against her. No arraignment date on that charge has been set.

Last year, Canada mailed documents from the Moorish National Republic Federal Government that claimed ownership of public buildings and attempted to file trillions in liens against officials with the city of Alexandria, the Alexandria Police Department and Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office.

The republic doesn’t exist, though. It’s an offshoot of the sovereign citizens movement that incorporates beliefs of the Moorish Science Temple of America, a religion founded in the early 20th century.

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The church disavows those who use its teachings as part of the sovereign citizen movement, stating on its website that it “is in no form or fashion a sovereign citizen movement or a tax protestor (sic) movement, consequently our teachings are diametrically opposed to that ideology.”

Canada, 53, denied being a sovereign citizen in her first court appearance, even as she admitted sending the documents. “I did, but it’s not real,” she said.

But a Rapides Parish Sheriff’s detective testified that he would classify her as a sovereign citizen, a person who believes not all laws or taxes apply to them. Past clashes between sovereign citizens and law enforcement have been deadly.

A man officials identified as Canada’s husband, Terrance Deon Anderson, sent similar packages under the name Terrance Deon Bey. Packages from both Canada and Anderson were sent via certified mail and were "copied to multiple organizations and agencies in Washington D.C.," reads one of the reports.

Anderson faces 24 felony counts of the same charge and will be in court for a March 18 pretrial conference.

The fake liens targeted Sheriff William Earl Hilton, Alexandria Mayor Jeff Hall and Chief Jerrod King, among others.

The court cases stem from an April 2019 traffic stop after Canada passed an Alexandria officer on Heyman Lane while driving about 30 mph in the 15-mph zone of J.B. Nachman Elementary School.

The officer whipped around to follow her, first turning on his lights and then his siren.

Canada stopped in traffic, near the intersection with Coliseum Boulevard. As the officer told her to move her car out of traffic, Canada allegedly told him several times that he should have run her license plate to find out who she was, that he wasn’t allowed to stop her and that she didn’t have to listen to him, according to the initial report.

She got back into her 2015 Chevrolet Equinox and left. The officer followed with his lights and sirens on, and Canada soon pulled over again. This time, he pulled his weapon after seeing her reach into the car’s center console.

But she walked to him with her hands up and was handcuffed. She told him her name was Maria D’Miya Bey.

“She stated she did not have to obey the laws of the United States and did not have to obey the laws of Louisiana because she was a free citizen,” reads the report.

The car didn’t have an inspection sticker and sported a metal license plate that read “Moorish Temple of New Kemit MNK-65792.”

Another report stated that Canada kept telling the officer that she didn’t have to obey federal or state laws and “things such as ‘You don’t understand it now but you will’ and ‘This is not the US, this is Morocco.’"

The Louisiana law the pair is accused of violating doesn't cover all public officials, though. Elected officials, like Mayor Hall, aren't covered under the law.

Canada's cases already have been reassigned to Judge Chris Hazel, and Rapides Parish Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bowman expects them to be back on the docket soon.