Bogus Checks Finding Their Way Here 10 Eastern Washington Residents Face Charges Over Freemen Checks

At least 10 Eastern Washington residents face possible federal charges for passing the same kind of bogus checks issued by the Montana freemen.

The radical anti-government group, which some call a racist cult, created its own government and is accused of issuing $19 million of worthless checks and money orders nationwide.

People who’ve tried to cash the checks now face prosecution.

But those arrests aren’t expected before the FBI resolves its most pressing problem: ending the five-day standoff with at least a dozen remaining freemen fugitives.

On Thursday, it appeared that federal and state officers believed the fugitives may have planned to leave their Justus Township compound, located about 30 miles from Jordan.

Late morning, about 20 agents grabbed their automatic weapons and appeared almost panicked as they blocked off the Loomis and Clark Trail, an eight-mile county road that leads to a half-dozen farm houses that comprise the township.

An FBI agent wouldn’t explain what was going on, then ordered reporters and photographers from the area. “Get out of here, it’s extremely dangerous,” he yelled.

Nearby, two Montana Highway Patrol officers placed devices across the road that would flatten the tires of passing cars.

The FBI established a similar road block about five miles away.

No freemen were seen in the area and the roadbocks were removed about 90 minutes later.

The FBI directs all questions to the U.S. attorney’s office in Billings, about 200 miles away. There is no FBI spokesman in Jordan.

Throughout the day, FBI agents including SWAT teams from Seattle, Salt Lake City and Kansas City - kept a highly visible presence on county roads leading to Justus Township.

The standoff began Monday when two freemen leaders were arrested without incident at the township.

“We’re not discussing the progress of negotiations,” U.S. Attorney Sherry Matteucci, whose office is in Billings, said Thursday.

Matteucci said she and the FBI don’t know exactly how many men, women and children are in the compound. “I don’t know, and I don’t believe anybody knows for sure,” she said.

The known list includes two check-writing fugitives from Colorado; a father and two sons who face charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest in North Carolina; and nine Montana freemen.

In Billings, LeRoy Schweitzer, 57, formerly of Colfax, Wash., and Daniel Petersen, 53, of Winnett, Mont., were arraigned Thursday on federal charges of orchestrating the bogus-check scheme and threatening public officials.

During the hearing, Petersen yelled at the federal magistrate: “I want you to be an honest person and the rest of these perverts to be honest people.”

He was led from the courtroom for being disruptive.

Schweitzer has refused to submit to fingerprints in the Yellowstone County Jail and isn’t eating, taking showers or talking.

For the last three years, he and Petersen held seminars in common law that taught people how to file liens and write bogus “comptroller checks” and “warrants.”

An estimated 800 people, including some from Eastern Washington, paid as much as $100 each to attend the courses, most recently held in Justus Township.

One of their students, M. Elizabeth Broderick, of Los Angeles, began conducting her own similar classes in a Southern California hotel that was raided Tuesday by the FBI.

She was not arrested.

At least 10 checks signed by either Schweitzer or Broderick have been accepted for payment at various businesses and banks in Eastern Washington, U.S. Justice Department sources said.

There is no way of knowing how many other bogus checks have been rejected. One official said there easily could be 100 or more that were turned down by alert bank tellers or other recipients.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington in Spokane confirmed Thursday that the FBI investigation into bogus checks in Eastern Washington is underway.

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