The unconventional religious and political beliefs of a man charged with assaulting a Long Beach police officer have become an integral part of his trial this week.

Solomon Brooks, 31, is facing up to life in prison if he’s convicted of throwing his bicycle at an officer and then repeatedly trying to fight the police who pulled him over for riding without a bike light on the evening of June 3, 2016.

Brooks contends he was the victim of overzealous officers who beat him with a baton, pepper sprayed him and Tasered him while he fled from their unprovoked attack.

But as trial began Monday, prosecutors turned the focus to Brooks himself, alleging he ascribes to a philosophy that he thinks exempts him from U.S. law.

“He wants his own rules,” Deputy District Attorney Drew Harbur told jurors during opening statements. “He wants his own special treatment because of those beliefs.”

Harbur said he plans to read jurors a portion of a letter Brooks sent from jail to the judge overseeing his case. In December, Brooks, who is black, wrote that he is part of the United Native American Moorish Society and refers to himself as a “tribal sovereign.”

The letter, Brooks writes, is to inform the judge of Brooks’ “correct jurisdictional status as an Eloheem Yahuda Moor.”

Quasi religious beliefs

Brooks is likely referring to a set of quasi religious beliefs espoused by small groups of Americans that they are sovereign citizens who are not subject to U.S. law, according to Ryan Lenz, senior investigative writer for Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal center.

“To understand this, you really have to kind of suspend not just your disbelief but your own personal logic of the way the law works,” Lenz said.

Historically the idea of sovereign citizenry has been mostly confined to white communities, and it even carries racist roots. But in the last decade or so, the Southern Poverty Law Center has watched the idea spread into black communities in America as well, according to Lenz.

“Black Moorish sovereign citizenry is the same sort of empowerment or freedom from the federal government but it has the history of black oppression behind it,” Lenz said.

Moorish sovereigns often believe their ancestors were the original inhabitants of America when the world was composed of a single continent, according to Lenz.

This leads to the conclusion that they are part of a separate nation whose rules predate — and therefore supersede — U.S. law, according to Lenz.

Lenz said there are no firm numbers as to how many Americans ascribe to sovereign citizen ideals, but one estimate pegged the number around 300,000 in 2010, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

‘Gross misrepresentation’

Brooks has not said in open court exactly what he believes, but his attorney, Meghan Blanco, called prosecutors’ description of Brooks’ faith a “gross misrepresentation” of his views.

She’s objected to witnesses mentioning Brooks’ beliefs during trial, arguing that his personal views have no bearing on how police treated him.

A friend of Brooks, Yandallah Yahvah, who came to court Tuesday, said Brooks does hold uncommon beliefs, but he would never be violent with police.

“He is completely of peace,” she said.

While his case has worked its way through the judicial system, Brooks has challenged the authority of the court.

At previous hearings, he’s argued with court officials about his name.

“Formerly my name is King Solomon Sekhemre El Neter, but [in] corporate America, they refer to me as Solomon Michael Brooks,” he said during a November court date.

Jury to decide

It’s unclear how much the evidence about Brooks’ beliefs will play into the jury’s decision to convict or acquit him. He’s charged with one count of assault on a peace officer and two counts of resisting arrest.

Police contend Brooks fled from officers, threw a bike at one of them and tried to land multiple punches during the chase. However, Blanco plans to highlight a civilian witness who’s expected to testify that police were the aggressors.

The woman, Elizabeth Brainard, says she was working at a burger restaurant on Atlantic Avenue when she saw Brooks and an officer on the sidewalk outside.

According to Brainard, the officer ran after Brooks, who was still on his bike, and began swinging his baton at Brooks without warning.

“That man didn’t deserve this, I can tell you that,” Brainard told a Long Beach police internal affairs sergeant. “He was minding his own business and he didn’t once try to attack. I saw fear and surprise in his eyes. He never once tried to retaliate in defense.”

A recording of Brainard’s conversation with the sergeant is contained in court records.

By the end of his arrest, Brooks had a broken arm after being hit with a baton, pepper sprayed and shocked with a Taser multiple times, according to Blanco.

Brooks faces a possible life sentence in the case because he has previous convictions for robbery and battery with a deadly weapon in Clark County, Nevada, according to court records.