In a Facebook post Sunday morning, Hoquiam Police Department Interim Chief Jadd Slastrom recounted the events an unusual arrest late Saturday night.
Just after 10pm, a Hoquiam Police Department officer saw a car northbound on Lincoln Street with no headlights traveling 5 mph under the speed limit.
When the officer attempted to pull the car over, the driver initially cooperated but then shortly after pulled back onto the road and continued northbound.
When the driver did not respond to the officer’s siren A Gray’s Harbor Sheriff’s deputy joined the pursuit.
Shortly after the driver turned onto US 101, the HPD officer blocked the car’s path.
The driver was found to not be under the influence of drugs or alcohol but instead insisted that they were a “sovereign citizen”, a pseudo legal term to assert she was not subject to law enforcement’s authority.
Salstrom wrote in his post, “she was wrong.” After being stopped a second time, the driver was detained.
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