Phony writ offers bounties for national, state and local lawmakers

Phony writ from sham court offers bounties for national, state and local lawmakers

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR

More than three dozen Western North Carolina judges, elected officials and municipal employees have been “served” with a bogus judgement from an illegitimate court that offers rewards for their capture if they do not immediately satisfy the terms.

Supposedly emanating from a 2013 indictment issued by an “Independent Grand Jury of the people” that resulted in a judgement issued by the “U.S. Environmental District Court” — which is not a real court — the judgement makes several serious but unfounded allegations up to and including treason and also alleges the unlawful discharge of chemical and biological warfare agents into the nation’s water supply.

On Aug. 9, The Smoky Mountain News was allowed by one recipient on the condition of anonymity to review the so-called “writ of execution” but was not permitted to copy, photograph or take notes regarding its contents.

A writ of execution has nothing to do with capital punishment, but everything to do with utilizing police power to satisfy a judgement issued by a real court.

The official-looking writ examined by SMN demands payment of a $1 million fine and that the recipient surrender themself to a tribunal. Those who do not, the writ claims, will be subject to citizen’s arrest, for which a $20,000 bounty would be paid by “the court.”

A similar but slightly different version of the writ can be found on a website run by a group called “The People’s Bureau of Investigation.”

Both the site and the writ feature vague references to sovereign citizens, the so-called “patriot movement,” globalists, “the deep state,” the “China virus,” the New World Order and debunked Qanon conspiracy theories.

The four examples of the writ known to The Smoky Mountain News had all been delivered via fax, with at least one of them signed, “ThankQ.” The writ examined by SMN seems to be fixated on common public health practices as a tool of the deep state.

“The deep states [sic] foundation is based on sewer revenue,” reads the PBI website, which can be traced back to an Illinois man named Tim Dever.

According to LinkedIn and Facebook, Dever is a “CEO and freedom fighting cereal [sic] entrepreneur” and operates an arcade game sales, repair and rental company called Monkeys Arcades in a far western suburb of Chicago. The website accepts donations, sells PBI merch and offers a cryptocurrency called “Freedom Tokens.”

Anyone who “serves” a writ qualifies for a $2,000 reward, according to the PBI. Instructions on how to “serve” the fictitious writs are also available on the site.

The PBI maintains a database on its website of who’s purportedly been “served.” Neither the database nor the writ examined by SMN list the names of the persons who “served” them.

According to the database, nearly a thousand of these writs have been sent to public servants in 41 states and the District of Columbia since early April.

Elected officials from all points along the political spectrum were targeted, including President Joe Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsome and Georgia Senate candidate Stacey Abrams on the left and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn on the right.

Writs were sent to California and Florida the most, with 282 and 214 respectively, followed by Oregon’s 89. North Carolina ranked fourth with 62. More than half of them were directed to public figures with ties to Haywood County.

All were sent beginning in late June, culminating in mid-July.

District Attorney Ashley Welch and judges Donna Forga, Roy Wijewickrama and Kaleb Wingate were each sent one. Sheriff Greg Christopher and Chief Deputy Greg Haynes both got one. The entire Waynesville Board of Aldermen, along with Mayor Gary Caldwell and three of the town’s water/sewer/streets employees, were also on the list.

Former Waynesville Town Attorney Woody Griffin even had one sent his way.

Two were allegedly sent to Haywood County Commissioners, Jennifer Best and Kirk Kirkpatrick. Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers and his father, School Board Attorney Pat Smathers, were each allegedly sent one as was Chairman Chuck Francis and his entire eight-member school board.

Elections Board Chairman Danny Davis and his wife, Ann, were included per the database, along with Haywood Regional Medical Center CEO Greg Caples and Chief Nursing Officer Susan Mahoney.

One was allegedly sent to Sylva Mayor Lynda Sossamon, and to Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof.

Public officials in Buncombe County weren’t overlooked, as the database also lists Sheriff Quentin Miller, two Buncombe water service employees, Asheville Mayor Esther Mannheimer, Asheville City Attorney Brad Branham and Judge Jacqueline Grant.

In addition to sheriffs Miller and Christopher, Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin was also named in the database as a recipient.

Further afield, North Carolina Supreme Court Justices Anita Earls, Sam Ervin, Robin Hudson and Paul Newby were all supposedly sent copies, as was the vice chair of the North Carolina Real Estate Commission. Several public officials from the town of Kenly and almost a dozen Charlotte-area judges were named, along with another judge from Henderson County. On the morning of Aug. 12, Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher confirmed that he had indeed previously received one of the writs and that he’d forwarded the entire matter on to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Later that same day and in response to an SMN public records request, Haywood County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Christina Esmay said that HCSO would not provide a copy of the writ served to Christopher, and directed henceforth all communications on the matter to the FBI.

Shelley Lynch, a public affairs specialist with the FBI’s Charlotte division, told SMN hours later that the FBI has been in “regular contact” with elected officials in Haywood.

“While we cannot provide additional details,” Lynch wrote, “we want to remind the public the FBI takes seriously any allegation that individuals may engage in criminal activity against elected and appointed officials.”

Citing Department of Justice policy, Lynch declined to comment on whether or not an official investigation is underway, and on what the potential criminal activity she mentioned might be.

When reached via email, Dever told SMN to “go away,” and said there was no criminal activity because “they are lawful writs from the Environmental Court regarding poison water.”

The case has caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Cory Vaillancourt photo

After the Flood

Trying times, trauma, trepidation and triumph

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT • POLITICS EDITOR

Hours earlier, Natasha Bright had been trapped atop a bunk bed in a barricaded bedroom with her dogs, her cats and her brother, watching the floodwaters from the furious Pigeon River rising through the floorboards beneath them, but after a long, cold, wet night the waters finally receded so with an armful of children’s clothing and mud squishing between her toes, Bright headed out of Cruso on foot into the pale sunshine looking for a shower.

It was only the start of Bright’s journey back from last summer’s deadly flooding, but it also marked the start of Haywood County’s journey back from devastation to recovery and resiliency.

Now, one year after what’s become known as “The Green Pepper Flood” — fields were stripped of produce, which was then scattered downriver — many of Haywood ‘s civil institutions, leaders and residents are still struggling with the shock, the strain and the ominous foreshadowing the flood brought with it.

However, the same grit and grace that saw this rural mountain community through the tragedy has also allowed it to see something else — small signs of triumph.

TRYING TIMES

The William G. Stamey Municipal Building on Park Street, for decades a busy administrative hub for the Town of Canton’s government, is now forlorn and eerily quiet.

Water inundated the structure, which also houses the town’s police department. On the ground floor, workers have cleaned up the muck, removed furnishings and wall hangings, ripped out countertops and stripped the drywall from aluminum studs — giving the place an ironic aura of tidiness and sterility despite the warnings of toxic mold posted on the glass doors out front.

On the second floor, the lobby outside the boardroom is strewn with boxes upon boxes of documents hurriedly salvaged from the silty waters of the Pigeon one year ago. The darkened boardroom isn’t much different.

Just up the street, town government now operates out of a modular building, where Town Manager Nick Scheuer and CFO Natalie Walker are busily pouring over a spreadsheet.

“It’s been simplified a little bit,” Scheuer said. “I had some columns and things like that just to make it a little easier to digest, but this is sort of what we’ve been working off from the beginning.”

What it all boils down to is a sad testament to the destructive power of water unbound.

According to engineering estimates, the Stamey Building sustained $5.2 million in damage and another $2 million in lost equipment.

The firehouse behind town hall incurred $4 million but is miraculously still in operation.

Across the street, the historic town-owned Colonial Theater took on $1.3 million in severe damage that makes town hall look like the Taj Mahal.

The Armory, another town-owned building used for events and recreational programming, endured $1.5 million in damage.

Camp Hope, a sprawling upriver retreat with overnight cabins and an event venue, saw almost $1 million in damage, including the access bridge to the camp itself.

The town’s pool, itself underwater during the flooding, suffered almost $700,000 in damage.

All told, Scheuer’s and Walker’s spreadsheet shows $21,325,551 in damage to town property.

Insurance doesn’t even begin to cover the costs. Just over $4 million has been or will be recouped through settlements, but the town has taken a proactive role in applying for grants and for reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The FEMA process is obviously long and complicated, but Scheuer reported to the Board of Aldermen on Aug. 11 that nearly 80% of the 20 projects referred to FEMA are in some stage of the approval process, with others pending.

Still, grant money that hasn’t yet arrived and the reimbursable nature of some projects mean that the town has to come out-of-pocket for the work. To date, Canton has received $3.1 million in flood damage compensation from all sources but has spent more than $4.5 million.

“Pre-flood, we had $4 million sitting in our checking account,” Scheuer said. “Right now, we’ve got $601,000.”

Of the $21.3 million in damage, the town expects another $7.6 million in FEMA funding, leaving $9.6 million in unmet needs against an annual town budget of roughly $11 million.

“We have to operate and continue to offer all of the town services that we always offer, but yet rebuild at the same time,” said Walker.

That’s led to cash flow concerns among town staff. If and when reimbursable grants come in, the town doesn’t have deep enough pockets to take on more than one project at a time.

“What worries me, what keeps me awake at night, is how we’re going to be able to rebuild sustainably and ethically with our future in mind with the very little money that we have while sustaining the current infrastructure we have for water, sewer, roads and recreation,” said Kristina Proctor, a Canton alderwoman. “We have big dreams and we have ways of getting them done, but we’re not going to be able to get to that next phase where we’re truly sustainable without a larger influx of funds from either the state or the federal government.”

Two separate direct allocations from the General Assembly totaling around $18 million — one for repairs to water and sewer infrastructure, the other, unrestricted — will help somewhat, but among the projects not yet funded are some of the most important, like a new town hall and a new police station.

The bleak financial situation, just numbers on a spreadsheet really, pales in comparison to the living color of the human tragedy that unfolded; Proctor said that for her, one of the most trying aspects of the whole experience is knowing that nearly everyone in the small, tight-knit mountain mill town was touched by the flooding in some way.

“You can feel the impact on your community. Now, it’s come to a day where it’s not as prevalent anymore,” Proctor said, “but it’s still there. And when you bring it up, the feeling that you get from people — it’s palpable. You can feel the pain. You can feel the stress. You can feel the challenges when they start to think about the possibility of something like that happening again.”

TRAUMA

It all started for Natasha Bright on the morning of Aug. 17 in her family’s cabin, several miles upstream from Canton and less than 150 feet from the usually tranquil east fork of the Pigeon River. After getting her kids off to school, bright munched on a sandwich and watched the rain fall.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred, which had come up from the Gulf of Mexico, were beginning to drop tremendous amounts of precipitation on Haywood County, which is shaped like a bowl with Canton near the bottom. Bright’s husband Kile left to