QAnon-Believing "Sovereign Citizen" Known for Flouting COVID Protocols Claims She is a Light Entity, Sues Judge Presiding Over Her Case

     Born on April 6th, 1969, 53-year-old Ann M. Retzlaff has been a menace for a long time. In 2018, she was arrested for OWI and would ultimately plead guilty, receiving a license suspension for nine months along with concurrent mandated use of an ignition interlock device for a year. She would also be convicted of refusing to take a DUI test after another arrest in 2019 and receive a year of license suspension and another year of ignition interlock device use. In 2020, she pled guilty to unlawful use of a phone for harassment and was ordered to pay a fine. 

     It wasn't always this way. Retzlaff graduated from high school in 1988 and attended UW-La Crosse from then until 1992 with a BS in physical fitness education. She became a gym teacher, a path her daughter would follow and one that would ultimately lead her to become one of my three high school gym teachers. From 2007 to 2009, she would go back and get her master's in public administration. From August 1988 to September 2004, she was stationed in the army in South Korea and Germany at a desk job overseeing financial documents; in the latter country, she picked up German and French. From July 2005 to July 2010, she organized a number of career development events for children and their families in Wiesbaden and Baumholder, Germany, just between Frankfurt and the German borders with France and Luxembourg. Annie's Campground was opened in 2010.

      The pandemic certainly didn't help her; instead of living at her home on West 12505 Roosevelt Road in Gresham, Wisconsin (54128), Retzlaff is living in jail. In 2020, she became a local hero to conservatives after refusing to adhere to any COVID safety protocols with her business, Annie's Campground in Gresham. In April 2021, she had a restraining order filed against her by a couple, one that the plaintiffs were granted. In May 2021, she was charged with two felony counts of recklessly endangering safety, one felony count of fleeing or eluding an officer, and one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest for leading officers on a chase through Shawano and Menominee Counties. These crimes carry a maximum combined penalty of 24 and a half years in prison. She was also ticketed for failing to stop at a stop sign and failure to obey an officer. She told officers that she was trying to rescue a friend who was being human trafficked, which indicates a belief in the QAnon conspiracy that states that Democrats are Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles.

     For months, Retzlaff ignored orders and skipped court dates, sending in a letter claiming that, in spite of gaining local recognition solely for ignoring COVID protocols related to masking and social distancing, she was too afraid of COVID to attend court. After six months, a warrant was issued for her arrest charging her with a felony and a misdemeanor count of bail jumping as well as two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. These crimes carry a maximum penalty of an extra eight years in prison. She was arrested on April 22nd and has been held without bond since.

     Her behavior hasn't improved since she has been in jail, unable to make $25,000 bond. She has represented herself, claiming she is not a person but a "living soul" and that the state and county courts have no jurisdiction over her. She filed a federal civil rights suit against the judge presiding over her case, William Kussel, claiming he and law enforcement conspired against her, kidnapped her, and are holding her against her will to help human traffickers. (She filed it in the Northern District of New York for some reason.) Again, QAnon. That "living soul," reference, one she backed up by calling herself a "free woman," is a reference to the sovereign citizen movement that rejects America's legal system entirely and believes citizens are individual nations with a "right to travel." She has been given a new judge, with Judge Kussel forced to recuse himself because her civil suit creates a conflict of interest, and bound over for trial. A Capitol riot defendant tried a similar approach and was warned he could face obstruction of justice charges, so we'll see if Ann crosses the line at some point and gets another felony charge. 

     How could this have happened? It didn't happen overnight. She is a former military member who lives in the middle of nowhere and spends too much time on the internet, making her essentially the perfect target for conspiracy theories like those spouted by Donald Trump and his supporters. She has gone down the same path of radicalization that the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th did. In a matter of five years, she has gone from essentially a model citizen to somebody who is facing years in prison on numerous felony charges. It's sad, really, but that's what happens to uneducated people, especially older folks, who believe misinformation.

     Still, no matter what her background, no matter what her excuses, she is a dangerous individual. Her criminal history has escalated from civil infractions to restraining orders to misdemeanor charges and now numerous felonies. If she is released anytime soon, she is very likely to commit other crimes, potentially violent ones. She believes she has a divine calling to protect people from tyranny and horrific sex crimes, and that sort of thinking will allow people to justify literally any conceivable crime in their own minds. It's going to take a prison sentence and the loss of her business to teach her a lesson, or, at the very least, keep the public safe for some period of time.

     I'll keep following her case until she is convicted or acquitted and her business meets one fate or another, because it is a prime example of the danger online radicalization, almost always by the right, poses to democracy and America's rule-based order. Ann Retzlaff is going to face some serious consequences for her actions, but we need to confront this threat before it drives people to commit crimes, not just punish those who have committed crimes.