Pupil of ‘Freeman’ Remains Defiant

Even as a federal judge condemned her activities, a Palmdale woman who issued billions of dollars in checks backed by “liens” against top Washington officials said Tuesday she has already been cleared of wrongdoing by a court of her peers in the anti-government patriot movement.

“I’ll never be on trial in their [federal] court,” M. Elizabeth Broderick, 52, insisted during an interview at her office here. “We’ve already done the trial. The verdict is in.”

Broderick, a pupil of a Montana “freeman” whose recent arrest sparked an ongoing armed standoff between his followers and federal agents, said a jury composed of fellow members of the patriot movement considered her case in San Diego last week. Movement members believe they have the right to renounce their U.S. citizenship and become “sovereign citizens” empowered to create their own government, complete with common-law courts.

She said the group upheld her right to issue billions of dollars worth of checks backed by the “liens” she has placed against Postmaster General Marvin Runyon and U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, among others. Broderick has been teaching others--many of them low-income people in debt--to do the same. Armed with the common-law judgment, Broderick predicted she will be able to dissolve federal injunctions against her activities simply by appearing in U.S. District Court waving an American flag.

“Ill just stand here like this,” Broderick said, modeling the pose she intends to strike with a miniature flag. “I’ll say, ‘No jurisdiction, [the judge] has no jurisdiction.’ ”

But U.S. District Court Judge William Keller, before whom Broderick intends to take her defiant stand, already has indicated she will not be able to so easily wave her legal troubles away.

On Tuesday, Keller indefinitely extended an earlier restraining order prohibiting Broderick from threatening federal officials with the liens, calling her actions “harassment” that could result in further legal action. He also ordered Broderick, who did not appear in court and was not represented by a lawyer, to produce a list of all federal employees against whom she has placed liens.

Keller will consider arguments on Tuesday to bar Broderick from producing the checks--or “warrants,” as she calls them--that she distributes to students who flock to the anti-government seminars she holds in a Lancaster hotel. Last week, he said that issuing and promoting the checks may constitute bank and mail fraud.

In an interview at her office on a sparsely developed stretch of Palmdale Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon, the pink-sweatsuited Broderick outlined her unorthodox world views. She explained why she maintains she is outside federal law, can create “warrants” to pay off debts at will and need not abide by Keller’s restraining orders.

Broderick, a student of Montana freeman LeRoy Schweitzer, claims she renounced her U.S. citizenship--along with the need to pay taxes and obey federal and state courts--last fall.

Broderick believes the existing judicial system is a sham and that the only true legal authority is vested in common-law courts--a venue with neither judges or lawyers that she said is governed by the Ten Commandments. It was such a court that vindicated her in San Diego. A videotape of that proceeding was played at Broderick’s most recent anti-government seminar Monday.

Broderick said her “warrants” are backed by liens she filed in 1993 against Orange County officials who shut down her business selling gold coins. Last year, after attending a seminar by Schweitzer, Broderick began holding seminars promising to teach people how to pay their debts with the money she claimed she was owed.

She said she is trying to help people crushed under what she believes is martial law imposed by a hostile foreign government--in Washington. “I like to make people feel good. I hate to see them oppressed,” she said.

But federal officials are not impressed by her largesse. In court documents, they accuse her of committing mail fraud and point out that she charges up to $200 for her “quiet title and lien” seminars.

“The liens have no worth whatsoever,” Keller said.

* STANDOFF: “Freemen” strategy quiets tensions, not criticism. A3