LEESBURG — A Leesburg man who claimed he couldn't be arrested for a traffic offense because he is a sovereign citizenship and not subject to state laws discovered he was wrong.

Calvin Brown, 34, was pulled over for running a stop sign on 14th Street near Circle K and, according to the police, immediately began telling the officer that running the stop sign was not a crime. He allegedly told the officer his suspended license meant he'd be going to jail, but he asserted that he hadn't been driving at all and was in fact just "traveling" as a Moorish Sovereign Citizen.

When police ran Brown’s name through their system, they discovered his license had been suspended five times, canceled once and revoked twice for habitual traffic offenses over the past 12 years. He had been convicted seven times.

Police arrested Brown and charged him with a felony for knowingly driving on a suspended license with more than three convictions.

Moorish Sovereign Citizens emerged in the 1990s as an offshoot of the sovereign citizen movement. They claim they are independent of the authority of the federal and state governments.