Viral videos show Missouri police clash with ‘sovereign citizens’ during traffic stop

TROY, Mo. — A Missouri police department is reviewing procedures after video surfaced this week showing an officer’s confrontation with anti-government “sovereign citizens,” pulled over for speeding and driving with fake plates.

Andrew and Aaliyah Mencin, of Troy, posted police body camera footage of the incident over the weekend on TikTok and YouTube, drawing thousands of comments. The couple say they were abused in front of their children, and now want the police officer fired and the department investigated for wrongdoing.

The video shows an officer hit Andy Mencin with a Taser at least three times. Aaliyah Mencin can be seen being pulled from the car and hitting her head on the ground, causing her to be knocked unconscious.

Troy police issued a statement this week, describing the couple as combative and resisting arrest. But it added that the July 11 incident was “disheartening” and preventable. The department is reviewing its policies “to ensure they align with best practices in de-escalation and community-oriented policing.”

Police officials did not say what, if anything, the officer did that night to de-escalate the situation.

“We want to assure the public that we take this matter seriously and are fully cooperating with the Lincoln County Prosecutor’s Office through the course of this investigation and prosecution,” the department said.

In the statement on Facebook Tuesday, the police department said Officer Todd Plumb tried to pull the couple over, but the couple drove another sixth-tenth of a mile before stopping on a dead-end road and being combative. In an interview, Troy police Chief Jeff Taylor said he’s already cleared his officers. “They didn’t violate any policies,” the chief said. “They did it by the book.”

Lincoln County Prosecutor Michael Wood said his office is also reviewing the police actions that night.

“We are looking into it still further,” Wood said Wednesday. “We will take seriously any issues of criminal behavior on the part of law enforcement.”

Andy Mencin, 33, works as an auto mechanic. He said in an interview that he has high-functioning autism, ADHD and epilepsy. He said he was driving his wife’s Audi that night with a license plate he calls a Z plate. They bought it for $25 on the internet. It features an eagle, a sideways flag and the words “Private automobile not for hire.”

He said they drove with it for three months and had never been stopped by police. Andy Mencin said he didn’t get a regular license plate because he didn’t have money for insurance. He insists the state should recognize the plate.

“It falls under ‘truth in lending,’” Andy Mencin said.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch sent a copy of the plate to the Missouri Department of Revenue on Wednesday, and a spokesperson for that office said it is not a valid plate.

Wood’s office charged Mencin with felony property damage for allegedly damaging the inside of a police car. He is also charged with two misdemeanors: resisting arrest and fourth-degree assault. He was not charged with speeding or any license plate violation.

Wood’s office initially charged the wife, 29, with resisting arrest but dropped those charges.

A stop that escalated quickly

The video shows the traffic stop escalating quickly.

The Mencins complain that police never told Andy Mencin what he had been stopped for when the officer approached the vehicle.

“Hey driver, step on out for me,” the officer said, shining his flashlight on Andy Mencin. “Step on out for me, OK?”

Andy Mencin opened the car door and said, “On my own free volition.” He had papers in both hands.

The officer grabbed Andy Mencin’s right wrist. “Relax, stop,” the officer shouted, as Andy Mencin pulled back.

The officer shouted at him to put his hands behind his back as Andy Mencin continued to struggle. The officer Tased him, and Andy Mencin brushed aside the wire that connected the barbs. “Stop Tasing me,” Mencin yelled.

As this happened, his wife yelled at the officers and said she would call their sergeant.

Andy Mencin also was irked that the paperwork he tried to hand the officer was now in the road. The paperwork, Mencin explained later to a reporter, included his birth certificate and a printout showing he had filed suit against Troy. Mencin said he wanted to use that paperwork to prove his identity.

With her husband on the ground in handcuffs and prongs from the taser sticking out of his body, his wife leaned out the driver’s side window to videotape him. Police told her to sit in her car, and she said she was. They repeated the order, and she eventually crawled into the back seat to sit between her two daughters, ages 3 and 8. The children can be heard crying, sometimes screaming, as they watch it unfold.

An officer then took the oldest daughter out of the car to reach for Mencin’s wife. An officer pulled her out, and she hit her head on the ground. She was unconscious until police shook her. She and her husband were both treated at Mercy Lincoln Hospital before being taken to jail. Aaliyah Mencin said the hospital ordered a CT scan, and she had suffered a concussion.

After arresting both parents, an officer worked to calm the children down, even trying to explain to the older daughter why what the parents did was wrong. The children’s paternal grandmother picked them up at the scene.

“They are traumatized,” Aaliyah Mencin said of her daughters. “Night terrors, bed wetting. No one’s gotten a full night’s sleep in three months.”

Suspect on ‘Troy’s radar’

Law enforcement officers in Lincoln County have had several interactions with people who claim to be sovereign citizens.

Such people commonly profess that laws don’t apply to them and sometimes will say they don’t need a driver’s license because they can freely move about. They denounce federal citizenship and claim common law status. They often show up at governmental meetings and create disturbances. Those encounters can be intense, authorities say.

“Officers are keenly aware of how they approach and deal with sovereign citizens,” said Wood, the county prosecutor. “Everyone in law enforcement is aware of who they are. Generally, there’s a lack of cooperation with law enforcement.”

Wood said Andy Mencin has “been on Troy’s radar for quite some time.”

Aaliyah Mencin bristled at the term sovereign citizen, calling it an oxymoron. But she and her husband acknowledge they believe in the movement’s philosophies.

Andy Mencin said he has attended Troy city meetings for months to complain about trafficking and other crimes and has been told to shut up. He tries to get the police chief to arrest the mayor, saying he didn’t lawfully hold that office. He filed a federal lawsuit in June against the city of Troy and others, claiming local officers had beaten up people he knows and taken their property. A judge dismissed the suit.

Taylor, Troy’s police chief, said that once the videos of the July arrest went public this week, his office has been deluged with crude phone calls from out-of-towners, mainly people from the East and West coasts, cursing at officers and calling them Nazis.

Andy Mencin said he decided to post the videos on social media because he has a hearing coming up next week and he felt he hadn’t gotten much help from his lawyer.

Aaliyah Mencin’s public defender obtained the body cam footage months ago and gave it to her. Her husband put more than three hours of video on TikTok and YouTube over the weekend.

They said they got immediate feedback, some good, some bad.

“We have nothing to hide, that’s why we posted it,” his wife said.