His court date was the continuation of his Jan. 16 arraignment in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
When Lewis claimed in court that he was a sovereign citizen — meaning he believes he is free of any legal constraints — the public defender who was representing him left.
Minutes later, when the prosecutor was reading the indictment, Lewis had an outburst:
"How did this even start though? This started because my brother let the so-called peace officer in the house without them announcing, they actually walked in the house without announcing themselves. They just walked in … and they did not have their body cams on them that they supposed to have."
Lewis is accused of firing shots at officers while they attempted to take him into custody Jan. 3 at a Briarwood Avenue apartment. After firing the shots, Lewis allegedly barricaded himself inside, taking a woman and two boys hostage. Police said that one of the boys was Lewis’ son, and both boys were the woman’s children.
The SWAT standoff that ensued lasted nearly 14 hours, and no one was injured, police said.
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