‘Sovereign citizen’ boater tased, arrested after injuring officer

A man suspected of illegally mooring his boat was arrested by San Rafael police Saturday after fleeing from the department’s patrol boat and fighting with an officer on shore.

At about 11:45 a.m., an officer in the patrol boat “Mission City” was motoring along the San Rafael Creek canal waterway near a yacht harbor in the 500 block of Francisco Boulevard East in San Rafael when he spotted 51-year-old David Moses allegedly trying to get away in a small boat.

Moses guided his boat into the yacht harbor, where another officer found him walking onto a dock and tried to detain him for alleged illegal mooring and anchoring, according so San Rafael police.

Police said in a news release Monday:

Moses claimed that he was a sovereign citizen and was not subject to the law.”

After allegedly becoming “uncooperative” and refusing to follow the officer’s instructions, Moses allegedly pushed past the officer, “became physically combative and fought with the officer,” Police said.

The officer used a taser to no effect and continued to struggle with Moses until the patrol boat officer arrived and helped take him into custody, police said.

Moses was arrested on suspicion of aggravated obstruction of an officer, resisting an officer, battery on an officer, grand theft, vandalism and prohibiting mooring/anchoring of a vessel, according to police.

Moses wasn’t injured in the scuffle but one of the officers suffered a minor injury, police said.

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