Extremist / militia · extremist
South Carolina's public record on this movement is mostly sovereign citizen cases: federal fraud prosecutions from 2015 to 2019, a 2020 SLED sham-legal-process case, and traffic-stop arrests and lawsuits from 2023 to 2026. The militia record is thin: a 2021 Columbia police personnel action over a Three Percenters sticker. The Bootleg Militia appears in a 2012 sheriff's briefing only as an outlaw motorcycle group. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
The U.S. Attorney's Office for South Carolina described the sovereign citizen movement on 2015-10-21 as one that denies the jurisdiction and authority of the federal government. On 2019-05-16 it called the ideology false and meritless and summarized its claim that adherents are not subject to the laws of the United States. The Post and Courier reported on 2026-07-13, citing the FBI, that the ideology solidified in the early 1970s with the teachings of William Potter Gale and that the FBI began referring to sovereign citizens as domestic terrorists in 2010. [1][3][6]
For the militia movement, WIS News 10 on 2021-07-12 quoted the Anti-Defamation League describing the Three Percenters as anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement. No South Carolina court or prosecutor source on Three Percenter origins was located. [7]
At a public gang briefing reported on 2012-03-13, Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office detectives presented on a group they called Sovereign Citizens, or Moorish, which the paper reported was represented locally. A detective said members were considered domestic terrorists rather than a gang and had created phony identification records and fabricated license plates. The same 2012-03-13 briefing listed the Bootleg Militia as an outlaw motorcycle group in the Orangeburg tri-county area, alongside the Devil's Rejects. The source does not describe it as part of the militia movement. [8]
SLED gave significant assistance to Homeland Security Investigations in the Eastern District of Virginia case against James T. McBride of Columbus, Ohio, leader of the sovereign citizen group Divine Province, who was convicted on 2014-08-13 of causing the impersonation of a diplomat and producing false identification documents. On 2021-07-12 the Columbia Police Department removed an unnamed officer from patrol and opened an Office of Professional Standards review after a complaint about a Three Percenters sticker on his personal vehicle. The department said the officer removed the sticker voluntarily. [9][7]
Public South Carolina records describe adherents in small networks rather than a statewide organization. USAO-SC said the 2015 Easley defendants were part of a group that endorsed EFT debt-discharge instruments, and that trial evidence in the 2016 Columbia tax case showed the five defendants were members of the sovereign citizen group the Moorish Nation. The Post and Courier, citing the FBI, described sovereign citizens on 2026-08-26 as a loosely organized anti-government group with an estimated few hundred thousand adherents nationally. No public source located gives a South Carolina membership figure. [1][2][10]
Public sources describe documents and plates rather than insignia. The Richland County Sheriff's Department said a counterfeit plate bearing a USDOT designation and the words Not For Hire, found at a Two Notch Road stop reported on 2025-05-23, is typical for people claiming to be sovereign citizens. USAO-SC described checks drawn on closed accounts marked EFT only for discharge of debt and endorsed authorized representative without recourse (2015-10-21), and claims against birth certificates used to discharge debts (2019-05-16). SLED warrants released 2020-10-27 describe documents from the Moorish National Republic Moorish Divine and National Movement of the World styled with seals and titles to appear court-issued. [5][1][3][4]
Federal fraud cases: Jeffrey Scott Green and Lisa Flaugher-Green of Easley received 30 and 27 months on 2015-10-21 for an EFT debt-elimination conspiracy. On 2016-03-31 Jefford Henry, Jeffrey Henry, Linda Marie Henry, Makeshia Glover and Bobby McGuire received 46 to 121 months for a scheme that took about $2 million from the IRS. Ronald Allen Wright of Columbia was sentenced on 2019-05-16 to 10 years for tax fraud and wire-fraud conspiracy after attempting to discharge nearly $15 million of consumer debt through birth-certificate claims. Mount Pleasant dentist Judy Villanyi was sentenced on 2018-02-28 to five months for obstructing tax administration after mailing the IRS sovereign citizen materials. [1][2][3][11]
Paper filings against officials: on 2020-10-23 SLED agents charged Nyah El Dey, 71, and Brenda Harley Rivers, 68, of Walterboro with conspiracy, and Rivers with two counts under Section 16-17-735(D), in an effort to intimidate a judge through documents sent to Dorchester County court. These are charges; no disposition was located. [4][12]
Traffic-stop encounters: Thomas Edward Humphrey, charged with traffic offenses after a 2023-06-24 Myrtle Beach stop, filed a 239-page Horry County suit on 2026-06-26 seeking $132,257,933. Circuit Judge Alex Hyman dismissed it after the filing fee went unpaid by 2026-07-15, and Humphrey filed an appeal notice on 2026-08-07. On 2025-04-26 a U-Haul fleeing North Charleston police crashed on Meeting Street in Charleston, killing a motorcyclist. Driver Margie Kathy Brown, 54, was charged with reckless homicide and other offenses, and Live 5 reported that she and a male passenger claimed to be sovereign citizens. In Richland County, deputies charged Devonte Arthur, 33, with operating a vehicle with a counterfeit plate (reported 2025-05-23). [6][10][13][5]
On 2003-12-08 Steven Bixby and his father Arthur Bixby engaged in a 12-hour gun battle with law enforcement in Abbeville that killed Deputy Danny Wilson and Constable Donnie Ouzts, amid a dispute over a highway easement. Steven Bixby was sentenced to death in February 2007; Arthur and Rita Bixby received life sentences. [14][6]
Steven Bixby is a South Carolina death row inmate. His attorneys argued in 2025 that he was incompetent to be executed, partly because of his belief that he is a sovereign citizen. Competency hearings ended in Greenville on 2025-08-22; SCPR reported he is a self-described sovereign citizen, and the prosecutor called his views marginal beliefs, not delusions. No public source located describes sovereign citizen or militia organizing, filings or STG designation inside SCDC facilities; the Bixby competency litigation is the only SCDC-related public record found. [15][14]
S.C. Code Section 16-17-735, enacted by 1998 Act No. 385, makes it a felony punishable by one to three years to falsely assert authority of law by sham legal process to intimidate or hinder an official. The section defines sham legal process to include a lien that is not lawfully issued. H.4742, a 2014 bill to add Section 29-1-60 making a false lien against a public officer or employee a felony, was introduced in the House on 2014-02-20 and in the Senate on 2014-05-01, where it remained in the Banking and Insurance Committee. [12][16]
DOJ releases on South Carolina residents charged over January 6, 2021, including George Amos Tenney III of Anderson (indicted 2021-10-25) and Derek Cooper Gunby of Anderson (convicted 2023-11-13), name no Oath Keepers, Three Percenter or other militia affiliation. [17][18]
South Carolina's public record on this movement is mostly sovereign citizen cases: federal fraud prosecutions from 2015 to 2019, a 2020 SLED sham-legal-process case, and traffic-stop arrests and lawsuits from 2023 to 2026. The militia record is thin: a 2021 Columbia police personnel action over a Three Percenters sticker. The Bootleg Militia appears in a 2012 sheriff's briefing only as an outlaw motorcycle group.
