Wednesday, June 26, 1996

Dan Morales files lawsuit against members of Republic of Texas movement

By STEVE RAY
Harte-Hanks Austin Bureau

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Dan Morales on Tuesday charged 25 members of the Republic of Texas with a series of illegal actions - including falsifying government records.

The lawsuit filed in State District Court in Travis County claims the Republic and some of its members intimidated, retaliated and filed bogus liens against the state, public officials and private citizens.

"If people want to believe the United States illegally annexed the Republic of Texas 150 years, they are free to do so," Morales said. "But they are not free to break the law. And they are not free to intimidate, coerce and harass law-abiding Texans."

State District Judge Paul Davis signed a temporary restraining order prohibiting the group from filing improper liens or otherwise violating state law.

But members of the Republic of Texas say they don't recognize Morales' authority to file the lawsuit or Davis' authority to rule in the case.

"We're exercising our political rights as a nation," said Richard McLaren, a Fort Davis paralegal who has the title of chief ambassador and legal consul of the group. "Mr. Morales has no authority to exercise foreign relations law for the United States ....As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Morales can take his tinkertoy court and get lost."

McLaren is among the Republic members charged in the lawsuit.

It is the latest in a series of state actions against the organization that believes Texas was illegally annexed into the United States in 1845 and is still an independent nation.

Members of the group have demonstrated in front of the state Capitol, convened their own courts and filed lawsuits and liens against officials and private citizens.

In May, Morales told county and district clerks not to accept or file property liens issued by courts not established by the constitution or state law.

The same month, McLaren was jailed by a federal judge over allegations he field bogus liens against neighbors' property in the Davis Mountains. He has since been released after promising to not file any more liens.

Republic members were also among six Texans sentenced to prison in May for using bogus money orders in what prosecutors called a protest of the federal banking system.

"The bottom line for the so-called Republic of Texas is they are hurting citizens of our state," Morales said. "And they are breaking the law. They are filing false liens ... and they are using this tactic to harass and intimidate public officials who might consider official action against them."

Republic of Texas members could be subject to contempt of court proceedings or criminal prosecution if they break the law, Morales said.

"We all have the right to protest our government," Morales said, "but no right to violate its laws."
He said hundreds if not thousands of liens were clogging the state's property records system, including one lien filed against all state property in February.

Liens can cause problems for owners of property when they try to sell those properties or list them as assets.

McLaren said Morales is "way out of line" in filing the state court lawsuit and threatened to call federal marshals if Morales keeps interfering.

The temporary restraining order which prohibits the defendants from continuing to violate state law also makes the Attorney General the temporary receiver to dissolve any liens, judgments, indictments and other orders made by the Republic's so-called common law courts.

Morales said that will allow his office to undo the liens without separate proceedings in courts around the state and save affected citizens the need to hire an attorney.
Morales said his office had been monitoring the Republic of Texas organization for the last several months.

He said members have committed several illegal activities including fraudulently representing the Republic of Texas to be an official government, representing members to be official government personnel, using the official Texas State seal illegally and without authorization, improperly filing Republic of Texas documents in an attempt to encumber property and representing the Republic of Texas courts to be duly commissioned courts.

No one from Abilene was listed among the 25 charged in the lawsuit.