A man labeled a “sovereign citizen” by police was denied bail this month after pleading not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with a summer traffic stop that spiraled into taser probes and handcuffs near the parking lot of a Japanese restaurant in Lebanon.
About a month before the Lebanon incident, 64-year-old Kenneth Forcier of St. Helens, Oregon, was pulled over in Hartford for the same initial traffic violation: an invalid license plate that read “PRIVATE.”
“I know this to be commonly used by those who identify as sovereign citizens,” Hartford Police Corporal Michael Goslin wrote in a probable cause affidavit in late May.
After Forcier failed to produce a registration form or proof of insurance, as he would in Lebanon a month later, Hartford police found that Forcier’s most recent license, issued in Oregon, expired in 2023 and was suspended, according to Goslin’s affidavit.
When Goslin explained that the Toyota Tundra Forcier was driving would be towed, he “became verbally confrontational,” refusing commands to exit the vehicle, the affidavit states.
Additional officers arrived at Goslin’s request.
Forcier declared “the laws don’t apply to him because he was not driving, he was traveling,” Hartford Police Lieutenant William Furnari, who responded as backup, told the Valley News in July.
After about 12 minutes of alleged disobedience, officers placed Forcier in handcuffs.
“We had to pull him out of the vehicle,” Furnari said in July.
In his Vermont case, pending in Windsor Superior Court, Forcier is facing a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. No future court dates have been scheduled. Court records show that he does not have an attorney.
Windsor County Deputy State’s Attorney Taaha Rehmani, who is prosecuting the case, was not available on Monday.
In Lebanon, on June 28, Lebanon Police Corporal Christopher Day conducted a traffic stop on a pickup truck displaying an illegitimate government-issued registration plate in the parking lot of Koto Japanese Steakhouse on Plainfield Road, according to the affidavit in support of the charges.
Day observed the same “PRIVATE” plate Hartford police had stopped Forcier for the prior month.
“Based on Cpl. Day’s training and experience, he knows these plates are often used by sovereign citizens,” the affidavit states. “Cpl. Day knows sovereign citizens are very anti-government who believe they are immune from federal, state and local laws.”
Forcier failed to provide a license and registration when told to by Day, according to the affidavit.
Day told Forcier he was being detained for two reasons, according to the affidavit: Day’s “knowledge about how unpredictable and hazardous sovereign citizens can be,” and Forcier “refusing to provide all required documentation in order to operate a motor vehicle.”
The situation quickly escalated, with Forcier refusing Day’s commands, the affidavit stated.
To subdue Forcier, Day deployed five probes from his stun gun, the last of which struck Forcier in the leg and caused him to scream out in discomfort and his body to lock up, “indicating a good connection,” according to the affidavit.
As Day placed Forcier in double-locked handcuffs, additional officers arrived.
A subsequent search by police of the vehicle Forcier was driving yielded a container holding a substance identified as methamphetamine.
Forcier refused legal representation in his New Hampshire case, court records show.
In a pending Grafton Superior Court docket, Forcier is facing multiple violations and charges including felony drug possession, transporting drugs in a motor vehicle, misuse of plates, resisting arrest, disobeying an officer, driving after suspension, operating without a valid driver’s license and operating an unregistered vehicle.
At an Oct. 13 arraignment and bail hearing in Grafton Superior Court, Judge Jonathan Frizzell entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Forcier to all charges and violations, as Forcier declined to enter pleas.
For the most serious of his New Hampshire charges, felony drug possession, he faces a potential prison sentence of up to seven years.
In August, Forcier filed multiple handwritten motions from his cell at the Grafton County Jail, demanding dismissal of all charges.
“I have been incarcerated in the Grafton County House of Corrections since June 28 without any communication with the courts despite my cooperation, frequent outreach and obvious availability,” he wrote in one motion.
The court denied his dismissal motions.
A voicemail left for the Grafton County Attorney’s Office was not immediately returned on Monday.
At his Oct. 13 hearing, Judge Frizzell ordered Forcier to remain detained in Grafton County jail.
