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Police: Ohio man, son killed Ark. officers
By CHUCK BARTELS and KELLY P. KISSEL Associated Press Writers © 2010 The Associated Press
May 21, 2010, 9:08PM
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An anti-government Ohio man who had several run-ins with police around the U.S. was identified Friday as one of two people who allegedly gunned down two officers during a traffic stop in Arkansas.
Arkansas State Police on Friday identified the pair — killed during an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement officers — as Jerry R. Kane Jr., 45, of Forest, Ohio, and his son, Joesph T. Kane, believed to be 16.
About 90 minutes before the shootout Thursday with police, Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and Officer Bill Evans, 38, were killed with AK-47 assault rifles after stopping a minivan on Interstate 40 in West Memphis, Ark., authorities said.
Jerry Kane, who used the Internet to question federal and local governments' authority over him, made money holding debt-elimination seminars around the country. He had a long history with police and recently complained about being busted at a "Nazi checkpoint" near Carrizozo, N.M., where court records show he spent three days in jail before posting a $1,500 bond on charges of driving without a license and concealing his identity.
Clark County, Ohio, Sheriff Gene Kelly told The Associated Press on Friday that he had issued a warning to officers on July 21, 2004, about Kane, saying he might be dangerous to law enforcement. Kelly said he based his conclusion on a conversation he had with Kane over a sentence Kane received for some traffic violations.
Kelly said Kane had complained in July 2004 about being sentenced to six days of community service for driving with an expired license plate and no seat belt, saying the judge had tried to "enslave" him. Kelly said Kane added that he was a "free man" and asked for $100,000 per day in gold or silver.
"After listening to this man for almost 30 minutes, I feel that he is expecting and prepared for confrontations with any law enforcement officer that may come in contact with him," Kelly wrote in his warning to officers.
Kelly told the AP on Friday that he wrote the warning because he was "very concerned about a potential confrontation and about his resentment of authority."
On an Internet radio show — hosted on a website that lets amateurs create their own shows and live discussions — Kane expressed outrage about his New Mexico arrest.
"I ran into a Nazi checkpoint in the middle of New Mexico where they were demanding papers or jail," he said. "That was the option. Either produce your papers or go to jail. So I entered into commerce with them under threat, duress and coercion, and spent 47 hours in there."
Kane said he planned to file a counterclaim alleging kidnapping and extortion against those involved in his arrest and detention. Kane also said he had an officer sign a document that said the officer must pay for using Kane's name.
"I am now putting together an invoice for him for approximately $80,000 in gold for the eight times he used my name," Kane said on the radio show. "I already have done a background check on him. I found out where he lives, his address, his wife's name."
Mark Potok, who directs hate-group research at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Kane had not been in the group's database before Thursday. But he said that was not surprising, given the "explosive growth" in the anti-government movement in recent years. With 363 new groups in 2009, there are now 512, Potok said.
Members of so-called patriot groups don't recognize the authority of the U.S. government and consider themselves sovereign citizens.
JJ MacNab, a Maryland-based insurance analyst who has testified before Congress on tax and financial scams, said she had been tracking Kane for about two years and that his business centered on debt-avoidance scams.
Potok said such scams are common in the sovereign citizen movement.
"He basically promised them they would never have to repay their mortgage or credit card debt," MacNab said.
Kane's website showed he held one of his seminars in Las Vegas 15-16 and that he was due to appear in Safety Harbor, Fla., May 28-29. His website Friday asked that donations be sent to an address in Clearwater, Fla., to help his family.
At that Florida address, a woman, speaking through the front door, told an AP reporter to leave the property when he knocked and identified himself. Two bicycles were in front of the unkempt, single-story home and exercise equipment was on the porch. A sign on the front door read: "No visitors. This means you. Thank you for understanding."
A woman who answered the door at the home of Kane's mother, Patricia Holt of Marysville, Ohio, also told an AP reporter to leave and said she had no comment. She did not identify herself.
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Associated Press Writers Jill Zeman Bleed in Little Rock; Lisa Cornwell in Springfield, Ohio; Sue Holmes in Albuquerque; Mitch Stacy in Clearwater, Fla.; and JoAnne Viviano and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
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