How a Covid ‘cure’ bleach seller tried to argue his way out of jail
Dealing in slaves, kidnapping and money laundering.
These are some of the alleged crimes committed by New Zealand’s District Courts, at least according to Roger William Blake – the man jailed for 10½ months at Hamilton District Court for the sale of bleach to combat conditions including Covid-19, brain tumours, diabetes, gout, herpes and even terminal cancer.
Blake was jailed in December 2023 after being found guilty of 29 charges under the Medicines Act 1981 over his sale of bleach and other chemicals “as purported remedies for Covid-19 and HIV”.
Now the Waikato Times can reveal new details about his attempt to be released from prison ahead of sentencing, something complicated by his refusal to sign a bail bond, thanks to the High Court decision on Blake’s writ of habeas corpus, dated February 5 this year.
A writ of habeas corpus is a legal mechanism by which a prisoner or detainee seeks to prove their detention is unlawful.
The High Court ruling, from Justice Paul Radich, noted that Blake’s refusal to sign the bail bond stemmed from the belief that “the person named in the bail bond is a corporate entity, as distinct from the applicant as a person”.
Blake further claimed he should not have to sign the bail bond as it would be “self-incriminating and relating to a false identity”.
The bulk of Blake’s arguments were grounded in what is known as “sovereign citizen” concepts, the incorrect notion that an individual can opt out of having the law apply to them.
The “sovereign citizen” concept has been used, without success, in New Zealand for matters as varied driving offences, rates disputes, and even allegations of murder.
Justice Radich said Blake’s attempt to free himself from custody relied largely on the idea that “the applicant [Blake], as a living person, differs from the corporate form given to him in Court documents, and that he is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Court”.
“A central plank in the applicant’s case is that there is a distinction between ‘Roger William Blake’ as a form of corporate or artificial entity and ‘roger-william’ as a living person,” the ruling said.
“The applicant does not recognise ‘Roger William Blake; as referring to him such that, in his view, Court documents in that name, including the bail bond and the warrant, are not valid.”
Blake also claimed in documents filed with the High Court that the District Court “is itself committing a range of alleged crimes including ‘Dealing in Slaves’, ‘Kidnapping’ and ‘Money Laundering’”.
Unsurprisingly, Justice Radich was not persuaded.
“No person within New Zealand is able to dissociate themselves from their ‘legal persona’ so as to remove themselves from the jurisdiction of the courts,” he said.
“The arguments advanced by the appellant are untenable and without legal foundation.
“The applicant’s ‘dual personality’ or ‘split person’ theory is sometimes referred to as part of ‘pseudolaw’, a term that refers to a phenomenon through which litigants deploy ‘a collection of legal-sounding but false rules that purport to be law,” he said. “These arguments are not tenable. “Incomprehensible statements about being a natural person or not being a natural person or a trustee or a beneficiary and not being susceptible to the laws of this country are properly and summarily rejected by the Court,” he said.
“For these reasons, the application for a writ of habeas corpus is declined.”