Real arrest — and prison time — for man who plotted false arrests of NC judges
A man’s attempt to inspire false arrests of government officials in North Carolina and more than 30 other states has landed him behind bars — and he’ll be there for the next 10 years.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina on Friday announced the sentencing of the man who was initially accused last year of putting bounties out for arrests of elected officials, including sheriffs and judges. Prosecutors say he admitted to running a website called the “People’s Bureau of Investigation,” where he promoted fake legal documents purportedly connected to a fictitious federal court system.
The scam — which encouraged everyday citizens to make arrests — was entirely made up.
The Charlotte Observer first reported on the case in late 2022 when judges in Charlotte spoke out about safety concerns surrounding the “shadowy online vigilante group” which was “accusing them and hundreds of other elected officials across the country of treason and environmental crimes.”
Timothy Dever, 57, of Illinois, is the man behind the “People’s Bureau of Investigation,” federal prosecutors said. Before being sentenced Thursday, he pleaded guilty to five counts of aiding and abetting interstate threatening communication.
Although Dever claimed to have “writs of execution” — which, in legitimate legal circumstances, refers to a judge’s order in asset disputes — the circumstances Dever referred to were baseless.
“According to court documents and the sentencing hearing, Dever promoted the writs as a mechanism for removing federal, state, and local officials from their positions,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in the statement Friday. His website allowed others to download the bogus forms “as well as other documents and videos that explained the purpose of the writs and how to serve them,” the statement said.
In one video, Dever claims citizens could arrest “a sheriff, a judge and a governor,” who they claimed to have been convicted in the “highest court of the land,” according to court records. The website he ran made public names home addresses, and personal information of the hundreds of government officials Dever falsely claimed had been convicted under the fake “writs.”
Darris Gibson Moody, a North Carolina woman, also pleaded guilty to making an interstate threatening communication, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news statement. She’s been sentenced to serve two years in prison and three years on supervised release.
“Moody was a like-minded PBI group member who accused her targets of having been convicted of corruption, environmental charges, and even treason,” the statement from prosecutors said. “Moody used the PBI website to generate fake arrest writs for 57 individuals, most of whom resided in the Western District of North Carolina, including sheriffs, judges, and other government officials and private individuals and used software to fax the fake arrest notices to the recipients.
Both Dever and Moody are in federal custody and will be held in a federal prison facility, officials said.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina Dena J. King called Dever’s activities “anti-government.”
“Dever’s anti-government rhetoric and fake arrest writs were more than a nuisance. They put hundreds of lives at risk,” said King. “Those who shared Dever’s warped ideology, including Moody, became self-proclaimed bounty hunters that turned innocent victims into targets of harassment, intimidation, and death threats. But, unlike Dever and Moody’s sham court proceedings, my office has legitimate authority to hold these defendants accountable for their actions.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 1:58 PM.