DELTONA, Fla. - Two individuals were arrested in Deltona by the Volusia Sheriff's Office after allegedly refusing to give identification to deputies and driving an unregistered vehicle. 58-year-old Destry Wogerman and 43-year-old Laralynne Nabozny reportedly tried to assert their status as 'sovereign citizens' to exempt themselves from state laws.
The sovereign citizens movement originated in the 1970's, when a number of Americans claimed to renounce their citizenship and no longer be bound to certain civil and/or criminal statutes. These assertions are typically not recognized by law enforcement or court officials, and can sometimes lead to disagreements between the two parties.
In this case, Wogerman was stopped by a deputy for appearing to have an invalid license plate on his pickup truck. The tag, shown below, did not contain a typical plate number nor date of registration. It instead referred to the 'Global Postal Union Treaty' and identified the truck as a 'neutral zone transport vessel'. It carried an instruction, possibly to cops, that the vehicle should not be stopped and its occupant(s) should not be detained.
When asked by the deputy for his personal identification, Wogerman handed over some sort of papers. He first claimed his name to be 'The Postmaster', before appearing to identify himself as Mark Destry. The whole time, Wogerman was on speakerphone with a woman, who was shown on his phone screen to be saved as 'Michelle'.
It seemed that Michelle was, in actuality, Nabozny. Wogerman called her Michelle during the phone call, but she was booked as Laralynne Nabozny.
Throughout the traffic stop, Nabozny spoke to the deputy and to Wogerman through the phone, citing such events as the Geneva Convention as reason for Wogerman to withhold personal identification information from deputies. She confirmed with Wogerman that the stop was happening at the intersection of Catalina Blvd and Howland Blvd, and said she was on her way to join the interaction.
Wogerman was removed from his truck and arrested as he waited for Nabozny's arrival. He was shown on the deputy's bodycam to have, at some point, produced a driver's license from the state of Colorado. When Nabozny did appear, she lowered her window slightly and spoke to the deputy through the small space. Her truck appeared to have similar tags to Wogerman's.
She appeared to begin rolling the window up, until a deputy grabbed onto it with his hands. After she declined to unlock her door, the deputy used a specialized device to shatter the window. Nabozny was pulled from the vehicle, appearing to struggle violently with deputies, while the initial deputy scrambled into the vehicle to stop it from rolling forward into a VSO patrol vehicle.
At least one deputy appeared to have gotten blood on them during the scuffle, but it's not clear from the video whose blood it was. Nabozny was inches away from the shattered glass from her window when deputies brought her to the ground and put her in handcuffs.
Wogerman was charged with driving an unregistered motor vehicle, driving with his license revoked (with a modification for habitual offense), and resisting an officer without violence. Nabozny was charged with resisting an officer with violence, and battery on a law enforcement officer. The duo were each attached to different residences, with Wogerman living in Deltona and Nabozny in Lake Helen.
