AMHERST - A Cumberland County man has lost his bid to have weapons charges against him stayed.
In an 18-page written decision released Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Gerald Moir said police conducted their investigation fairly against Daren Wayne McCormick and upheld convictions against him.
"I emphatically reject the proposition that there was any misconduct by the police or the prosecution," Moir said in his decision. "I will not order a stay."
The 46-year-old Northport resident was sentenced in April to three years in prison for threatening to kill police officers on March 31, 2011 and various weapons offences as a result of police finding a revolver when he was arrested on April 1, 2011.
A libertarian, McCormick advocates the use of marijuana to fight cancer. He's an adherent to the Phoenix Tears and the Freeman-on-the-Land movements.
McCormick applied to have the charges stayed saying police and the prosecutor unfairly targeted members of his group. He claimed to be entrapped by police and said the prosecutor failed to provide full disclosure of his case.
Moir heard the case in Amherst in March.
In his decision, Moir said the case begins with McCormick's friend, Dean Simpson, swearing a private prosecution against police officers and a prosecutor who had been involved in his trial on drug charges.
Simpson alleged the prosecutor committed offences against the administration of justice and accused two police officers of committing perjury.
McCormick was with Simpson when the papers were filed and was "vehement and emphatic" as he threatened to kill police officers.
Another friend who was with them suggested that they, as Freeman, should search police officers' homes.
RCMP officers met that evening and decided McCormick presented a serious risk to the officers.
McCormick was charged with making the threat and police received a search warrant.
The defendant said it was wrong that an officer involved in the private prosecution was also involved in the meeting with senior officers at which time it was decided to arrest McCormick the next day.
Moir did not agree and suggested "no objective person with the information police had could conclude other than they did, that he posed a danger."
The justice also discounted comments from Simpson that members of his Phoenix Tears organization have been targeted by police through searches and prosecutions for the cultivation of marijuana, manufacture of cannabis oil and its distribution.
While he said the sense of indignation is understandable, Moir said the charge of oppression is not and that police and the prosecutor are responsible for enforcing the law.
He also said that because someone feels they can opt out of their social contract with government, that doesn't make them above the jurisdiction of the state and the courts to enforce statute law.
McCormick asserted his withdrawal from the social contract in an elaborate document that was notarized and delivered to some officials. One of his claims in the document was a right to bear arms.
"While respect can be shown for the interest of the Freeman in law and legal history, no respect is due for the next level of teaching. They say that an individual who withdraws from the social contract is beyond the jurisdiction of the state, and the courts, to enforce statue law. That is patently false," Moir said in his decision.
