“It’s okay to have beliefs, but you don’t commit crimes in the name of those beliefs. You don’t get to pull a gun on a police officer over a traffic ticket.” — Jim Hudson, Tarrant County prosecutor,” Feb. 1, 2012
In December 2010, purported “sovereign citizen” James Michael Tesi received two traffic tickets in the Dallas/Ft. Worth-area community of Colleyville, Texas.
Tesi, 49, was speeding — and he had no driver’s license, Tarrant County prosecutors said.
A court date was set two months later, but Tesi did not show up. A municipal judge issued an arrest warrant, prosecutors said.
After missing his court date, Tesi “sent a legal-sounding document to the municipal court threatening ‘deadly force’ if anyone tried to arrest him on his property,” prosecutors said.
On July 21, 2011, prosecutors said, a Colleyville police officer observed Tesi driving and tried to pull him over.
Tesi, though, did not stop. Instead, he drove to his residence in Hurst and pulled into his garage, prosecutors said.
The officer walked up Tesi’s driveway with his gun drawn and observed that Tesi had a handgun, prosecutors said.
A shootout in which 15 shots were fired ensued. Tesi was hit twice, but survived with wounds to the face and leg. The officer was not hit, prosecutors said.
Inside Tesi’s vehicle, police found a Tesi “affidavit” that “warned any officer who attempted to stop him that they had no jurisdiction over him and could face prosecution for harassing him,” prosecutors said.
Tesi ultimately was charged under Texas law with aggravated assault of a public servant with a deadly weapon.
The jury found him guilty on Tuesday, after deliberating for about two and a half hours. The penalty phase then began. On Wednesday, after less than two hours of deliberations, the jury sentenced Tesi to 35 years in state prison.