(April 17, 2024) District Attorney Keith Higgins announces that on April 16, 2024, an Appling County jury found Bruce Erbertlee Jackson, 35, of Baxley, GA, guilty of two counts of Felony Obstruction of an Officer with Violence.
The evidence presented at trial showed that on April 3, 2021, Stuart Boyer, then an Investigator with the Baxley Police Department (BPD), was patrolling the area of Fair Street in Baxley, GA, assisting in a response to a suspicious person call when he observed a vehicle commit multiple traffic infractions.
Boyer stopped the vehicle and found the defendant, Bruce Erbertlee Jackson, driving the vehicle. Jackson presented a non-governmental identification card identifying himself as “Ausar Tehuti El” and purported himself to be a “Moor American” and thus not subject to the laws of Georgia or the United States. While the defendant was handing the card to Investigator Boyer, the officer observed a Georgia Driver’s License in his wallet. Investigator Boyer requested to see the driver’s license and Jackson refused again stating claims of his sovereign citizenship and arguing that he was not driving, but instead ‘traveling’ and therefore did not need a license. Jackson continued to argue with the officer and not show his license and began making furtive movements inside the vehicle and refused to keep his hands visible.
Investigator Boyer determined that as a safety precaution, Jackson should exit the vehicle and he asked him to do so. Jackson refused, citing his fictitious legal claims. BPD Sgt. James Robinson arrived on scene and along with Investigator Boyer, removed Jackson from the vehicle. Jackson fought against the officers and intentionally used his weight to shove them off, elbowing Investigator Boyer in the chest and knocking the wind out of him and pushing Sgt. Robinson into the vehicle, hurting his back. As Jackson fled from the officers his bracelet was caught on Investigator Boyer’s finger which was fractured in the incident leading to two years of pain and permanent damage to the way it bends. Sgt. Robinson was sent to the hospital with back pain and out of work for a week as he recovered.
At trial, Boyer and Robinson testified about the incident. Jackson, representing himself, did not testify on his behalf but did argue in his opening and closing that he did not harm anyone and that he did not need a driver’s license that night due to his alleged foreign citizenship. Assistant District Attorney Hunter Smith, who prosecuted the case for the State, highlighted the fact that a tenant of our judicial system is that all individuals should be treated equally, both in rights, and in obligations and accountability, and that despite Mr. Jackson’s claims of alleged nationality and sovereignty, no one was above the law and outside of the Court’s jurisdiction.
The Appling County jury deliberated for over two hours and found Jackson guilty of two counts of Obstruction of an Officer with Violence. On April 17, 2024, Judge Stephen D. Kelley sentenced Jackson to 10 years, with the first 5 years to be served in the Department of Corrections and the balance on probation. Jackson was also banished from the Brunswick Judicial Circuit (Appling, Camden, Glynn, Jeff Davis, and Wayne Counties).
