20-year-old Christopher Diaz from Amarillo was pulled over on June 27th by the Texas Highway Patrol for having expired registration tags on his car.

After Diaz failed to provide proper identification, the arresting officer says he discovered a large amount of marijuana and hashish on Diaz and in his car. KTAB Reporter Michelle Ashworth spoke with Diaz at the Brown County Jail this afternoon.

    There Diaz told Ashworth that he still doesn't understand why he was arrested, that he insists that he uses the marijuana for clinical asthma. When asked if he was part of a California based religious group known as "I Am Sovereign," he said that he wasn't a member.

On their website, you can also find YouTube footage that a sovereign member posted claiming a Brown County Sheriff's Deputy assaulted him. The Sheriff's Office says the video clearly shows a deputy asking a man to exit the law enforcement lobby.

KTAB was recently told that at least 27 members of the "I Am Sovereign" were planning on traveling to Brownwood to protest against Brown County Law Enforcement. When KTAB was there this afternoon, we found no sign of a protest group in town and there was no record of a filed complaint against any law agencies.

What appears to have started as a potentially large protest against Brownwood Law Enforcement has largerly remained only on the internet.

Diaz continues to be held at the Brown County Jail on a $40,000 dollar bond. His supporters in the "I Am Sovereign" group stated on their website they have no intention of posting his bail.

KTAB's Katherine Lane received the following statement from a mother claiming to be Diaz's mother Wednesday evening:

My son is being held in violation of his human rights. Under the laws of the United States of America, he is protected. Since 1988 Congress has enacted laws and expanded authority of human rights violations, and my son is further protected under Executive Order 13107. It is the responsibility of Brown County Sheriff’s Dept. and other agencies within the county, to investigate these crimes of human right violations upon complaint. They have not. If there is any man that says that my son has committed a crime against him then let that man come forward and look my son in the eyes. My son has a right to face his accuser.