Alabama ‘Sovereign’ Kingpin Loses Land, Prompting Worries
Not even antigovernment “sovereign citizen” James Timothy Turner, who has made a living teaching people sovereign tactics he claims will allow them to beat the banks, can save himself when it comes right down to it.
On Feb. 22, Hatewatch has learned, the People’s South Bank in Ozark, Ala., foreclosed on two parcels of rural land totaling roughly 52 acres after Turner failed to make payments on a mortgage dating to June 2006. The same day the foreclosure was filed, the land was auctioned off on the steps of the Dale County Courthouse. The bank bought the land, and there wasn’t a peep of protest from Turner, a man who tells others how to defy the government. He didn’t even show.
But it’s the weeks ahead that have some in law enforcement worried. Will the man who has professed defiance of government for years stand idly by as the courts deliver an eviction notice? Or will the “president” of the Republic for the united States of American (RuSA), the nation’s largest sovereign group, stand firm against what he has called “the big tyrannical federal government” and its banks?
Law enforcement officials in Alabama told Hatewatch this week that they are concerned. Because Turner didn’t act to forestall the loss of his land, they fear he may have other plans. After all, Turner made his name in the movement lecturing followers on how to prevent exactly what just happened to him — foreclosure.