Anti-gov’t activist on trial for assault of police officer

WEST CHESTER >> The criminal trial of a former Immaculata University student who has espoused anti-government views and questioned the legitimacy of the court proceedings against her opened with jury selection Monday in Chester County Common Pleas Court.

Janay Rebecca Smith, 28, of Philadelphia, is accused of dragging a police officer down a street with the car she was driving following a routine traffic stop in Malvern two years ago, a felony for which she faces a possible maximum prison term of more than 90 years if convicted. The officer suffered moderate injuries in the incident.

Smith, who in the past has claimed to be a

member of the “Moorish American” movement, is representing herself in the trial before Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody, but has found herself in repeated disputes over minor sticking points — such as what her name is — with the judge since she fired her previous attorney, county Assistant Public Defender Peter Jurs. She now will act as her stand-by counsel as Smith represents herself.

Smith has previously questioned the legitimacy of courts in Pennsylvania and has contended that since she is a Moorish American, she cannot be judged by current authorities. But on Monday she appeared to put aside those stances, at least for the moment, as she answered Cody’s questions about her decision to proceed to trial without an attorney.

“You understand you will be totally on your own, and that I cannot assist you?” the judge asked, advising her that she would be better served with a lawyer presenting her case. “Yes, that’s correct,” Smith answered.

The case is being prosecuted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei and Assistant District Attorney Miles Matteson.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a national organization that tracks fringe movements, the Moorish Americans are a collection of “independent

organizations and lone individuals that emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of the anti-government sovereign citizens movement, which believes that individual citizens hold sovereignty over, and are independent of, the authority of federal and state governments.”

Among other things, such individuals refuse to acknowledge the need to obtain driver’s licenses, register their vehicles, or submit to traffic laws, because they contend those laws are only for “conveyances” that are engaged in commercial dealings. Some also contend they can copyright or trademark their names and keep others from publicly identifying them.

Smith allegedly told officers the night of the incident that she did not have to show any driver’s ID because she was “not driving as that is an act of commerce,” and she was not engaged in any such activity.

She is facing charges of aggravated assault of a police officer, recklessly endangering another person, fleeing or attempting to elude, resisting arrest and related charges stemming from the Dec. 20 incident in Malvern, a few miles from the Immaculata campus, where she was registered as a student.

According to a criminal complaint filed against Smith by Officer Stephan Walker of the Malvern Police Department, the incident began about 9:10 p.m. on Dec. 20 when Officer Tyler Bury saw a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo run

through a stop sign on Sugartown Road near the Raintree Apartment complex. Bury followed the car and watched as the driver failed to stop at three stop signs along King Street in the borough.

When the Monte Carlo turned into the Malvern Shopping Center on King Street, Bury approached and knocked on the driver’s side door to get the driver’s attention. The female driver rolled her window down a few inches and told Bury to “wait a minute.” Asked for a driver’s license, she insisted she was an “American National,” and provided only a self-issued, non-state identification card, which listed her name as Jahnay Rebekkah Bey.

Moorish American followers many times use the surname Bey, after one of the movement’s early leaders, Taj Tarik Bey.

When Bury could find no record of a driver’s license for Smith, he was joined by Officer Patrick Dougherty. They requested identification, which Smith allegedly refused to provide. When Dougherty told her she would be detained until she provided valid identification, she refused to exit the car, the officers said. The officers then both tried to forcibly remove her from the Monte Carlo, but as she struggled she was able to rev the engine and put the car in drive. It accelerated away.

Dougherty, who had grasped onto Smith’s arm, was dragged approximately 10 to 15 feet by the car before rolling away onto the

pavement.

Smith drove from the scene, but was stopped by Tredyffrin police about 30 minutes later on Route 30 and taken into custody. Dougherty missed about one week of work after being treated for his injuries at Paoli Hospital.

Smith was held on bail in Chester County Prison for several days after her arrest. While there, she wrote to a judge who was to hear her bail motion that she took issue with, “the

jurisdiction of the courts of Pennsylvania” and the United States. In the letter she argued against the notion of American citizenship, stating that she was part of the “Moor” nation, and questioned whether there was any justification for her being held for trial.

“I am jahnay rebekkah bey moorish american aboriginal and indiginous to the land,” the letter reads.

“I am in propria persona as my self for my self free white person at law,” she wrote in the three-page missive. “i am not a 14th amendment construct or artificial person i am declared national i am an african descendant not us citizens as us citizen ship is unlawful pursuant to the constitution article 13.”

Open statements are scheduled Tuesday, with the trial expected to last at least two days.