A B.C. woman allegedly conspired with a Tennessee associate to kidnap a judge in that state, as well as a sheriff in Nebraska.
Details of the strange case implicating Suzanne Holland were laid out at a court hearing in Tennessee on Sept. 1 during which state resident Patricia Parsons pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting solicitation to commit kidnapping.
Parson admitted that between February and May 2017, she conspired with Holland, who is also known as Zsuzsanna Hegedus, to kidnap the two officials.
Holland describes herself as the Chief Justice of the Universal Supreme Court of the Tsilhqot'in nation.
Based in Williams Lake, members of the "sovereign citizens" group have already been called "vexatious" litigants by a number of B.C. judges over the years.
Holland's group has also been disavowed by the Tsilhqot'in National Government, which has written to both provincial and federal ministers to explain the Universal Supreme Court of the Tsilhqot'in group "does not represent or speak for the Tsilhqot'in people," Tsilhqot'in communications manager Graham Gillies said Wednesday.
Holland has not yet been charged in the U.S. kidnapping plot. But she is in jail in B.C. after being arrested last June on some outstanding warrants.
Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin said Wednesday that she is facing a variety of breach charges, mostly for failing to appear in court.
McLaughlin said the underlying charges Holland faces "allege abduction of a person under 14 with intent to deprive the parent or guardian contrary to s. 281 and failure to provide the necessaries of life."
On Aug. 9, she was ordered to stand trial on the abduction charge, but no trial date has yet been fixed, McLaughlin said.
As for the U.S. investigation, a Department of Justice spokeswoman for the Western District of Tennessee refused to comment when contacted by Postmedia about Holland.
"We have no comment with ongoing investigations," Cherri Green said in an emailed statement.
And RCMP E Division media officer Cpl. Janelle Shoihet also declined to comment on whether Canadian police are working with their U.S. counterparts.
"Generally speaking, only in the event that an investigation results in the laying of criminal charges would the RCMP confirm its investigation, the nature of any charges laid and the identity of the individual(s) involved," she said in an emailed response.
The American case began after the husband of Holland's associate, Michael Parsons, failed to appear in state court in Tipton County, Tennessee in January 2017.
He was facing two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He had removed his ankle bracelet and fled, but was arrested two days later after flying a plane to a small airport in Nebraska.
On Feb. 16, the FBI's New Orleans office received information that Holland "was attempting to hire a bounty hunter to kidnap Sheriff Kurt Kapperman of Furnas County, Nebraska and Judge Joseph Walker of Tipton County, Tennessee and to break Mr. Parsons out of jail," a U.S. Department of Justice release said.
Holland contacted an FBI confidential source "and solicited the source to execute what were purported to be duly-issued 'arrest warrants' for the sheriff and judge issued by the Tsilhqot'in Nation," the Department of Justice said.
She then emailed her warrants to the source along with an order to release Michael Parsons from jail.
Holland provided the FBI source with a phone number that turned out to be that of Patricia Parsons.
"Based on initial telephone conversations, Ms. Holland and the source agreed to draft a contract, signed by both parties, describing duties and payments. A final negotiated price of $250,000 was agreed upon for the arrest of the sheriff and judge and the facilitating release of Mike Parsons from jail," the Department of Justice said. "Mike Parsons was described as an Associate Justice of the Tshilhqot'in Nation."
The negotiations continued for several weeks, the U.S. documents said, with Holland telling the FBI source that Patricia Parsons would have the money and be available to meet in Memphis.Holland later asked the source to accept Parsons' Corvette in lieu of a $5,000 downpayment.
In one call, the FBI source told Patricia Parsons that the plan was to sell "the vehicle to help fund the operation; breaking Mr. Parsons out of jail; kidnapping the Tennessee judge (who was scheduled to preside over her husband's impending trial) and the Nebraska sheriff; using the plane to transport the abducted individuals to Holland in Canada; and using 30 operatives divided into two teams to accomplish these objectives."
The source told Parsons that the operatives would have to go to Canada because "once we kidnap a judge and a sheriff, our heads are gonna be on the chopping block ... and once we do what we gotta do we can never come back."
Parsons agreed to meet one of the associates at her residence to complete the payment on March 6.
Instead of the Corvette, she signed over a Ford Ranger truck as a downpayment.
Parsons later agreed to find out more information about the judge.
"At no time did Parsons attempt to notify any authorities of the impending plot to kidnap a sheriff and judge and free Mr. Parsons' from jail," the U.S. documents state.
She faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail when sentenced on Dec. 1.
