Videos Show Missouri Police Clash With ‘Sovereign Citizens’

TROY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri police department is reviewing procedures after a video surfaced this week showing an officer’s confrontation with anti-government “sovereign citizens” who were stopped for speeding and driving with fake license plates.

Andrew and Aaliyah Mencin of Troy posted police body camera footage of the incident on TikTok and YouTube over the weekend, sparking thousands of comments. The couple say they were abused in front of their children and now want the officer fired and police to investigate misconduct.

The video shows an officer striking Andy Mencin at least three times with a Taser. Aaliyah Mencin is seen being pulled out of the car and hitting her head on the ground, rendering her unconscious.

Troy police issued a statement this week describing the couple as combative and resistant to arrest. But it added that the July 11 incident was “disheartening” and avoidable. The department is reviewing its policies “to ensure they are consistent with best practices for de-escalation and community-oriented policing.”

Police officials did not say what, if anything, the officer did that night to de-escalate the situation.

“We want to assure the public that we are taking this matter seriously and are cooperating fully with the Lincoln County Prosecutor’s Office as this investigation and prosecution proceeds,” the department said.

In the statement on Facebook Tuesday, police said Officer Todd Plumb attempted to stop the pair, but the pair continued driving for another sixth-tenth of a mile before stopping at a dead end and becoming argumentative. In an interview, Troy Police Chief Jeff Taylor said he had already cleared his officers. “You didn’t violate any policies,” the chief said. “They did it by the book.”

Lincoln County Prosecutor Michael Wood said his office is also reviewing police actions that night.

“We are still reviewing the matter,” Wood said Wednesday. “We will take all questions of criminal behavior by law enforcement seriously.”

Andy Mencin, 33, works as a car mechanic. In an interview, he said that he suffers from high-functioning autism, ADHD and epilepsy. He said he was driving his wife’s Audi that night with a license plate he calls a Z plate. They bought it online for $25. It features an eagle, a flag on the side and the words “Private Cars Not for Rent.”

He said they drove it for three months and were never stopped by police. Andy Mencin said he didn’t get a regular license plate because he didn’t have money for insurance. He insists that the state should recognize the license plate.

“It falls under ‘truth in lending,'” Andy Mencin said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch sent a copy of the license plate to the Missouri Department of Revenue on Wednesday, and a spokesman for that office said it was not a valid license plate.

Wood’s office charged Mencin with criminal damage for allegedly damaging the interior of a police car. He is also charged with two misdemeanors: resisting arrest and fourth-degree assault. He was not charged with speeding or a license plate violation.

Wood’s office initially charged the 29-year-old woman with resisting arrest, but dropped the charge.

The video shows how the traffic stop quickly escalates.

The Mencins complain that police never told Andy Mencin why he was stopped when the officer approached the vehicle.

“Hey driver, get in for me,” the officer said, pointing his flashlight at Andy Mencin. “Get off for me, okay?”

Andy Mencin opened the car door and said, “Of his own free will.” He had papers in both hands.

The officer grabbed Andy Mencin’s right wrist. “Relax, stop,” the officer shouted as Andy Mencin backed away.

The officer yelled at him to put his hands behind his back as Andy Mencin continued to fight. The officer swore at him and Andy Mencin pushed aside the wire connecting the barbs. “Stop bothering me,” Mencin shouted.

When this happened, his wife yelled at the officers and said she was calling her sergeant.

Andy Mencin was also upset that the paperwork he tried to give to the officer was now on the street. The documents, Mencin later told a reporter, included his birth certificate and a printout showing that he had filed a lawsuit against Troy. Mencin said he wanted to use this paperwork to prove his identity.

As her husband lay handcuffed on the ground with the spikes of the Taser protruding from his body, his wife leaned out the driver’s side window to film him. The police told her to get in her car, which she said yes. They repeated the command, and eventually she crawled into the back seat to sit between her two daughters, ages 3 and 8. You can hear the children crying, sometimes screaming, as they watch it all unfold.

An officer then took the eldest daughter out of the car to reach for Mencin’s wife. An officer pulled her out and she hit her head on the ground. She was unconscious until police shook her. She and her husband were both treated at Mercy Lincoln Hospital before being taken to prison. Aaliyah Mencin said the hospital ordered a CT scan and she suffered a concussion.

After both parents were arrested, an officer tried to calm the children and even tried to explain to the older daughter why what the parents were doing was wrong. The children’s paternal grandmother picked them up at the scene of the accident.

“They are traumatized,” Aaliyah Mencin said of her daughters. “Night terrors, bedwetting. No one has had a full night’s sleep in three months.”

Police officers in Lincoln County have had multiple contacts with individuals claiming to be sovereign citizens.

Such people often admit that no laws apply to them and sometimes say that they do not need a driver’s license because they can move freely. They reject federal citizenship and claim common law status. They often show up at government meetings and cause unrest. These encounters can be intense, authorities say.

“Officers are very conscious of how they approach and interact with sovereign citizens,” said Wood, the district attorney. “Everyone in law enforcement knows who they are. There is a general lack of cooperation with law enforcement.”

Wood said Andy Mencin had been “on Troy’s radar for quite some time.”

Aaliyah Mencin was outraged by the term “sovereign citizen,” calling it an oxymoron. But she and her husband admit they believe in the movement’s philosophy.

Andy Mencin said he attended Troy city meetings for months to complain about human trafficking and other crimes and was told to keep his mouth shut. He tries to get the police chief to arrest the mayor on the grounds that he does not legally hold that office. He filed a federal lawsuit in June against the city of Troy and others, alleging that local officials beat people he knew and took their property. A judge dismissed the lawsuit.

Taylor, the Troy police chief, said that after videos of the July arrest were released this week, his office was inundated with crude phone calls from out-of-towners, mostly people from the East and West Coasts, insulting officers and calling them Nazis .

Andy Mencin said he decided to post the videos on social media because he has a hearing coming up next week and he felt like he didn’t get much help from his attorney.

Aaliyah Mencin’s public defender obtained the bodycam footage months ago and gave it to her. Her husband posted more than three hours of video on TikTok and YouTube over the weekend.

They said they got immediate feedback, some good, some bad.

“We have nothing to hide, that’s why we posted it,” his wife said.