Self-proclaimed Superior Court Judge Bruce Doucette arrived in Oregon Tuesday to meet with Ammon Bundy’s gang of militiamen and help them prepare for a so-called citizen trial against local officials who they say have violated ranchers’ rights near the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.
It is the latest escalation in the standoff, which has grown increasingly peculiar in recent days with militiamen tearing down federal fencing, surfing government computers and rummaging through refuge documents.
Doucette, 54, is a computer fixer upper man who also doubles as a judge (although he has no formal legal training.) According to a Facebook page that appears to belong to him, Doucette is a judge for the Colorado Supreme Court, which “ARE THE HIGHEST COURTS ON THE LAND. THEY HAVE THE TRUE POWER BECAUSE THE VERDICTS ARE ISSUED BY THE GRAND JURY OF TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE THAT ALL MUST BE UNANIMOUS IN THEIR DECISION, NOT THE JUDGE.”
In this video, one armed squatter explains that “the grand jury and the judge came down to visit.” Watch at 15 seconds to see the procession complete with a horse and the American flag.
Doucette appears to have taken an oath of office to be a U.S. Superior Court judge — which, again, isn’t a real judgeship — in May 2015 when he declared that he was a “warrior protector” with “jurisdiction in all matters of all states and estates, national and countries where oppression, tyranny, suffrage, peonage, barratry, piracy, slavery of any type, involuntary servitude, antitrust, monopolizing, terrorism, exploitation, blackmail, extortion” or more occurred.
Doucette has interceded in matters between patriot groups and the government before. A Denver Post article from November chronicled how Doucette was called upon to assist a group of individuals who had moved to Costilla County, Colorado with the intention of setting up off-the-grid settlements, but had run into permitting fights with local officials. According to that piece, Doucette was called in via telephone at a meeting where he told the Denver Post that that while he did not have a formal law education, “I’m a very honest man with a lot of integrity, also very educated. I wouldn’t credit any institution for the knowledge I have.”
Doucette has also spent time working to free Steve Curry who is currently serving a jail sentence and is best known for allegedly selling illegitimate meteorites he claimed were tax deductible online. In a document posted to his Facebook page, Doucette sent a notice to Montrose County (Colorado) Sheriff Rick Dunlap informing him Curry needed to be released or the sheriff would face arrest. In a 12-page document, Doucette made his case and included a significant history of the sovereign citizens movement with a caveat for the sheriff.
“If you feel stupid or overwhelmed at the end, that’s normal and we all go through that process of waking up. Realize you were intentionally defrauded,” he said in the letter.
Doucette’s Facebook page is littered with various arrest warrants for county officials from sheriffs to local judges as well as memes explaining how the “word legal means undoing God’s Law,” a video showing how you can run a car on water, and an article on how to keep bees indoors. His Facebook also includes a letter to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper asking why he and the attorney general did not have an “oath of office” on file.
On his Facebook page, he also links to an article about ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, whose imprisonment for arson on federal lands was the inspiration for the standoff at Malheur. According to the article, their ranch — which adjoins the Malheur refuge — is sitting on “Natural Gas And Uranium that China Wants.”
Doucette is also a bit of a science denier and conspiracy theorist. He has posted about how he doubts that the world is really round. He flat out said on Facebook that “we do not live on a Globe.”
On November 16, Doucette posted a link on his Facebook titled “Boston Marathon Bombing ‘Victim’ Admits Hoax.” He then comments on the link and says ‘Yes but this is our pretend government … So sad that some people don’t see the Truth.”
