READ – The saga of militia members whose armed confrontation with police led to the closure of I-95 in both directions on the July 4th holiday weekend took a new turn as attorneys representing some of the men launched a defamation and civil rights lawsuit Submitted an amount of $ 70 million.
During the July 3 stalemate, which lasted approximately nine hours, both sides of I-95 were completely closed and parts of Reading and Wakefield on North Avenue and Walker’s Brook Drive and Ash Street were “sheltered”. order.
Last week’s lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Rhode Island on behalf of self-proclaimed “Rise of the Moors” leader Jamhal Tavon Latimer and various other militiamen who listed a number of alleged abuses related to their July 3 arrest and subsequent detention, including “defamation, discrimination of national origin and deprivation of their rights according to the color of the law”.
The defendants, during the July 4th weekend standoff with police and since their arrest, claim they are “Moorish sovereigns” whose rights as a free indigenous people are protected by an international treaty signed in 1787 between the United States of America and Morocco .
Specifically, supporters of the group “Moorish Sovereign Citizens” claim that the Moorish Empire, which between 711 and 1492 controlled almost all of Spain and Portugal, parts of Italy and large parts of North and West Africa, settled and trade routes in America long before Christopher Columbus’ journey into the new world.
They insist that they are descendants of these pre-colonial-era Moorish settlers, and the militia members say they are not subject to state and federal laws.
“If the state courts continue their unlawful prosecution and / or conviction, they are violating the civil, national and human rights of plaintiffs,” reads an excerpt from last week’s civil rights lawsuit, in which various members of the Mass. State Police, national. media companies and Malden District Court judge Emily Karstetter are named as defendants.
Latimer, a 29-year-old from Providence, Rhode Island, also known as Jamal Talib Abdullah Bey, was one of several members of Rise of the Moors who came out in large numbers during their indictment at a Medford courthouse of cases with Karstetter disputed gun charges on July 6.
Since various unidentified Zoom viewers shouted “treason” and sometimes insulted the judge, Karstetter had to mute the feeds of the participants several times. Several recesses were also mentioned.
While appearing before Karstetter, Latimer insisted that he and his co-defendants should be released pending trial on July 3 because of the group’s peaceful surrender at the end of the confrontation with state and local police.
The 29-year-old then began to argue with the judge about his indictment as planned, without a court-appointed lawyer acting on his behalf. In response, Karstetter ordered him removed from the courtroom for the disturbance and, after pleading not guilty on his behalf, ordered him to be detained without bail.
“I don’t need a dangerous hearing! I should be released, ”the defendant shouted as he was taken back to a holding cell in the courthouse.
Earlier this week, representatives of the Mass rejected it. State Police and the state’s judicial system are starting to respond to the allegations in the $ 70 million lawsuit.
A spokesman for the state police said in an email that since the authorities had not seen the lawsuit, they could not comment on the allegations. However, the Mass State Police continue to insist that after the July 3 stalemate, there was a likely reason to arrest the suspects, who “were arrested because and only because they violated the law and created a clear public safety risk to have”.
According to measure. State Police and prosecutors assigned to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office began the encounter with militiamen around 2 a.m. on July 3, as a mass. State Trooper spotted two delivery vans on the breakdown road of I-95 in. stopped near the Stoneham’s Route 28 exit and Walker’s Brook Drive exit in Reading.
After noticing that several of the people were carrying rifles over their shoulders while others were filling the vehicles with petrol from cans, the soldier asked the men to provide identification and a gun license.
When the suspects allegedly refused, and some in the group allegedly withdrew to a tree line off the highway as a backup, the stalemate began that resulted in the closure of both sides of I-95 and an order for housing in Wakefield and Reading.
During the subsequent negotiations between Latimer and state police specialists, the alleged militia leader stated that the men were on their way to Maine for “training”.
According to authorities and Latimer, who uploaded a series of live streaming videos to social media during the stalemate early Saturday, all suspects identify as Indigenous American citizens exempt from various state and federal laws.
“Our nation has a treaty with your government,” the group leader said in a live-streamed commentary as he walked the shuttered highway during the stalemate. “We were especially careful not to violate United States federal law. They state why we are not forbidden to carry weapons …[If the police disagree with that interpretation of the law], please hand us a subpoena or a ticket so that we can have our day in court and a judge can decide. “
State and local police said they were able to end the nine-hour stalemate after pulling a number of dump trucks onto the freeway, tightening the perimeter around the suspects – a tactic that aimed to make the suspects feel hemmed in.
After their first arrest, all ten adult members of the Milita were held on bail of US $ 100,000 pending charges. Many were subsequently detained without bail after court-ordered dangerous hearings.
According to the prosecution, police confiscated five rifles, a shotgun, two pistols and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the two vans.
Excerpts from Associated Press materials were used to compile this report.
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