A group of 30 sovereign citizens were booted out of a courthouse after turning up to support a man who went viral for refusing a random breath test.
The group showed up to the Wollongong courthouse on Tuesday in support of Glen Edward Short, 52, who is accused of not complying with police on August 7, 2023.
Mr Short gained national notoriety after a video of him arguing with police during a random breath began circulating online.
Supporters of Mr Short, who call him ‘Patriot 101’, took up most of the seating in the courtroom and were subsequently removed after the hearing became nonsensical.
Mr Short has pleaded not guilty to five driving charges, including refusing to submit to a breath test and refusing to produce a drivers licence.
Sovereign citizen Glen Edward Short, 52, appeared in the Wollongong Court with an entourage of 30 others as he faced five charges relating to not complying with police
Mr Short gained notoriety after filming a random roadside breath test where he went on a bizarre tirade claiming he was a self governed citizen on August 7, 2023 (pictured)
Throughout the hearing Mr Short repeatedly interrupted Magistrate Michael Ong.
Mr Short refused to stand at the bar table when Magistrate Ong called his name, instead announcing in the third person that ‘the beneficiary of that man is here’.
The defendant then flew off on a tangent of disjointed observations and questions, noting that the Judge was ‘sitting under a unicorn seal’ before asking if it was alright to refer to him as Bob, according to Illawarra Mercury.
Magistrate Ong ended the hearing after Mr Short threw a stack of papers across the court and announcing that the ‘court has now been placed on judicial notice’.
‘You have no jurisdiction as the state of NSW is registered to Washington DC on the Security Exchange Commission,’ Mr Short reportedly told the magistrate during his tirade.
After the abrupt ending, court sheriffs and police officers were called to escort the large crowd from the room but one 49-year-old man allegedly refused to leave.
Officers used capsicum spray to coerce the man out of his seat before he was taken out of the court and arrested.
The man was taken to the Wollongong Police Station. He was charged with failure to leave court premises as required by a security officer, not leaving the court at the request of court security, failure to comply with the reasonable direction of a security officer and willfully delaying a security officer.
The man was granted a conditional bail and will appear before Wollongong Local Court on February 13.
Mr Short’s hearing continued later in the afternoon after the magistrate made an order prohibiting the group from entering the courthouse.
Ten police officers guarded the entrance while Mr Short entered to complete the day alone.
The group was kicked out of the court (pictured) shortly after the hearing began once Mr Short, who they call Patriot 101, started interrupting and derailing the magistrate
Several of Mr Short’s followers called on others to join them at the courthouse for his trial.
‘If you are in Wollongong please get down to Wollongong Court House ASAP. We want as much support down here as possible for Patriot 101,’ one wrote online.
Mr Short became a local figurehead after he refused to make a Wollongong Highway Patrol Officer’s job easy when he was stopped on the side of a busy highway.
Mr Short filmed the altercation where he referred to himself as a ‘self-governed’ citizen, accused the cop of not having his consent to look up his personal details, and claimed he beat a chief magistrate in court.
‘Do you agree that I’ve said to you that is a commercial contract with roads and maritime services, and that is a separate corporation to NSW Police force, which is a different ABN,’ Mr Short said.
‘So you didn’t have consent by me, who I am the beneficiary and the executor of that legal fiction name.
‘You didn’t have the consent to even look up the details of that commercial contract to the RMS because you’re a separate corporation. I do study law.’
The video ended with Mr Short telling the police officer he didn’t have any jurisdiction over him and that he was leaving.
Mr Short argued he couldn’t be arrested because the officer did not ask for consent before looking up his personal details. ‘I do study law,’ Mr Short claimed at the time