Athol man sues ITD employee under law of Moses
COEUR d’ALENE — A 79-year-old Athol man is suing an Idaho Transportation Department employee for $6.6 million in damages after the employee suspended his driver’s license, but he wants to do it using Mosaic Law.
Peter Christian Jensen IV filed the suit against Edward R. Pemble on April 14, after a lengthy and unsuccessful process of petitioning the court to waive his $221 in filing fees.
In his civil complaint, Jensen told the judge he considers the state of Idaho an artificial person created by laws to govern, and under the reasoning of Mosaic Law, state laws are “fiction.”
Jensen said he has very strong religious beliefs, where he believes in only one God named Yehovah who handed down his laws to Moses and the people of Israel.
Jensen said “believers in Yehovah are commanded to obey only his statutes.”
“As such, (Jensen) is not subject to the jurisdiction of the codes and statutes of the artificial person of the state of Idaho, nor can he be subject to the codes and statutes of any fiction,” he wrote in the complaint.
He said Pemble was acting on behalf of the artificial person’s Drivers Service Manager at ITD.
“(Pemble) does not have the authority to govern the actions of a natural person,” Jensen wrote, adding that on Sept. 3, 2015, Pemble sent him a letter to inform him that his license was suspended until Jensen secured liability insurance.
Jensen was cited in June of 2014 for failure to register his automobile and failure to purchase liability insurance. He fought the charges in a trial and was found guilty. He was fined $198.50, but he also served five days in jail for contempt of court on Aug. 6, 2014.
Jensen fired back with a Notice and Demand letter “containing the facts and a good faith effort to resolve the controversy.” Pemble allegedly did not respond to the Notice, so Jensen sent a followup affidavit to Pemble on Dec. 24 providing more information regarding his allegations and Mosaic Laws of Remedy.
Jensen also detailed the amount of damages he feels he is entitled to. Again, he received no rebuttal from Pemble. Because of Pemble's silence and acquiescence on the suit, Jensen told the judge he was invoking his “position of silence by estoppel.”
Jensen is seeking $6,689,940 in damages payable in gold or silver because he considers currency debt.
He said he has been robbed of his religious liberty due to malfeasance in Pemble’s performance of his duties, which Jensen considers evil and unjust.
“There is no provision under law whereby (Pemble) can subject a natural person to the codes and statutes of a fictitious entity,” Jensen wrote.
He also accuses Pemble of stealing his rights by compelling him to submit to an insurance god and pay its premiums for liability protection.
Jensen’s third allegation was that Pemble withdrew his “alleged driving privileges.”
And the final count was Pemble was stealing his right to ownership of property by requiring him to register his vehicle with the state.
Jensen asserts that if he prevails in the suit, Mosaic law dictates that all damages must be paid in 30 days, or Pemble would be required to forfeit all of the assets he and his family own and his family members and their descendants would be held as bond servants — each paying 20 percent of their monthly income to him — until the debt is finally settled in full.
Jensen would also like the judge to reinstate his driving privileges without fees immediately and into the future.