Freedom, or just speeding?

You can call Kirby G. Kiehle a constitutionalist, call him mad, or crazy.

Kiehle, 59, of Hayden calls himself right.

The court, so far, has not weighed in.

At Kiehle's Wednesday bench trial for a traffic infraction in Coeur d'Alene Magistrate Court, Judge Anna Eckhart was to determine if Kiehle was guilty of traveling 10 mph over the posted 35 mph limit on Atlas Road north of Prairie Avenue.

After more than 90 minutes of testimony, however, the case was continued.

Prosecutor Ian Hopkins had expected a brief hearing.

“These usually only last five minutes,” Hopkins said.

The 1 p.m. trial in the county's courtroom No. 7, did not start uneventfully.

Because Kiehle has been flagged as being a threat to law enforcement, additional deputies, a state police trooper and several courthouse security officers appeared on the court floor, some of them joining Kiehle and his wife, Billie Wolff, in the courtroom.

Despite a recent stroke, Kiehle, who stands over 6 feet, displayed a commanding presence in his faded green shirt and unkempt salt-and-pepper hair. Kiehle was shaky at first as he tottered to the defendant's table to represent himself. A bailiff helped him into a chair. Then his voice boomed and he crisply articulated his objections — there were many — to the testimony of Deputy Harvey Ballman, who stopped Kiehle's white Nissan pickup truck around 11 p.m., Jan. 25, not far from Kiehle's W. Cranston Avenue home.

According to Ballman's report, Kiehle was northbound traveling 10 mph over the speed limit as Ballman followed in his sheriff's office vehicle.

Kiehle was traveling home from Super 1 after getting groceries for his wife, he said.

Ballman activated his overhead lights, but Kiehle kept going. The deputy used his siren to get Kiehle's attention, according to the report, but the Nissan drove on, several hundred feet, according to Ballman, before turning onto W. Cranston and pulling over.

Kiehle exited his vehicle and approached Ballman, who ordered the Hayden man back into his pickup, and an argument ensued.

Kiehle refused to present Ballman with his driver's license, registration and proof of insurance.

“Kiehle told me he was not going to comply with anything that I said …,” Ballman wrote in a report in court records.

Kiehle's return to his vehicle alerted the deputy who thought the suspect was either retrieving a gun, or attempting to flee.

Ballman grabbed Kiehle's wrist.

“He pulled away,” Ballman wrote in his report. “I forced Kiehle to the ground using an arm bar.”

At Wednesday's court session, Kiehle insisted Ballman was a criminal who kidnapped him and took him to the Kootenai County jail to be booked for obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor.

He asked the court on several occasions to dismiss the case.

“I was traveling as it was my right to do as an American,” Kiehle said. “I was not under the law when I was traveling from the grocery store for my wife.”

Kiehle distinguished between the words ”traveling” and “driving.” Driving is an occupation, he argued. Traveling is the right of a free American.

When you are traveling, he contested, “You are not under the law. That's what freedom means.”

Eckhart, who fenced intermittently with Kiehle as he piped up during testimony at the afternoon hearing, said the court was displaying patience in an effort to allow the defendant to argue his case.

“If you keep making smart remarks,” Eckhart said, “we will move on to something else. I am trying to treat you with respect.”

After 90 minutes and dozens of objections, the court and its audience appeared exhausted and the case was continued with Eckhart saying notifications of the next hearing will be mailed to the defendant. No date has been set.

The state-mandated fixed penalty for a speeding citation of 10 mph over the limit is $33.50.

That's not the point, Kiehle said.

“(Deputies) kidnapped me and tried to steal my money,” he said.