SHAWANO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A campground owner battling with Shawano County authorities has filed a “common law grand jury” case against three county officials, claiming her rights have been violated, and seeking to have the prosecution against her ended.
Ann Retzlaff faces four charges, including fleeing an officer, for a May 15, 2021 incident. Police said they tried to pull Retzlaff over for failure to stop at a traffic light, but she did not pull over. She was eventually stopped and arrested. Since then, she has missed several court dates, and the court forfeited the cash she posted. A warrant for her arrest was issued in November.
Retzlaff owns Annie’s Campground, near Gresham, in Shawano County. She has made several claims to be a ‘sovereign citizen,’ while rejecting the authority of the criminal justice system.
In an order filed Tuesday, Judge William Kussel took himself off the pending criminal case.
“The above defendant has filed a lawsuit against the judge, district attorney, and corporation counsel in the above matter; therefore recusal, while not mandatory, is appropriate,” it states.
The recusal order is a response to a document filed in December against Judge Kussel, Corporation Counsel Larenda Maulson, and District Attorney Gregory Parker, denying the jurisdiction of Shawano authorities.
“The purpose of this Amicus Curiae is to inform the court officers, hereinafter respondents, of fraudulent court procedures that have concealed the Peoples’ right of Natural Law courts causing the officers of this court, presumptuously unknowingly, to commit fraud upon the court via judicial machinery causing the court to seize person and property which proceeds without due process in a court not of Law,” the document states.
It asks the three officials to “show-cause by what ‘constitutional’ authority the above said court acts and why the attached violation(s) or charges against the petitioner should not be dismissed for lack of personam jurisdiction… Therefore, petitioner denies this court personam jurisdiction and moves this court to cease and desist from all actions against petitioner and restore the petitioner to their original state for lack of constitutional authority and personam jurisdiction.”
According to the Shawano County Clerk of Courts office, none of the three officials have filed any responses to the suit.
Apparently as a result of the lack of any replies, another document was filed in February, demanding the criminal court case stop, and for restitution of $1,000 from each defendant.
The February document also states the case is being moved to federal court. However, a search of federal court records for the eastern district of Wisconsin – which includes Shawano County – or the northern district for New York – which is cited in the documents – return no results under Retzlaff, Kussel, Maulson or Parker for this topic.
The pending felony case relates to the traffic stop.
According to the criminal complaint, police tried to pull Retzlaff over for failure to stop at a traffic light on May 15, but she did not pull over. Eventually, traffic stop spikes were deployed, flattening her tires, and the vehicle stopped. An officer advised her to get out of the vehicle.
“She stated she did not do anything wrong, and she was being wrongfully stopped. She stated she is a sovereign citizen and will not step out of the vehicle,” the complaint states.
A deputy tried to pry a vehicle door open when Retzlaff put the vehicle in gear to drive away. Two deputies had to move out of the way to avoid being hit by the vehicle, it states.
The vehicle was stopped a second time. A deputy “broke the driver window with his baton. The door was then opened, and Ann was taken from the vehicle and escorted to the ground. She was secured in handcuffs,” the complaint states.
Retzlaff told police she was rescuing an employee from sex traffickers, which is why she didn’t stop for police, and maintained she didn’t do anything wrong.
Retzlaff has been in trouble with the law before. In 2020, she was ticketed for unlawful use of a telephone for posing as a Shawano County sheriff’s deputy. Her campground also came under fire for ignoring protocols to slow the spread of COVID-19.
