Psychiatric Test Is Ordered for Jailed ‘Freeman’

A judge Thursday ordered a psychiatric examination for suspected forger and self-proclaimed “freeman” Timothy Paul Kootenay after he allegedly tried to kill himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial.

Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren scheduled a mental competency hearing next month to determine whether the Thousand Oaks man is mentally fit to stand trial.

Kootenay apparently tried to hang himself Saturday with a bedsheet after telling several of his cellmates his intentions, prosecutor Mark Aveis said. Authorities quickly untied Kootenay, who was not seriously injured, though he is now housed in the jail’s medical unit and is under watch, county Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Decessari said.

Defense attorney Neil Quinn said his client has become increasingly withdrawn and non-responsive since his arrest last month on eight felony charges. He is accused of using two worthless and bogus “certified money orders” to buy six assault-type rifles from an Oklahoma gun store.

The Ventura County Grand Jury indicted Kootenay in March after investigators from the U.S. Secret Service, Postal Service and the district attorney’s office testified that the Thousand Oaks tree trimmer had bought the money orders from a militant anti-government group called the Family Farm Preservation, which published a document titled “$-O-$, $hift of $trategy,” grand jury transcripts show.

Quinn contends that the group and its anti-government preachings exploited Kootenay’s religious and political views.

“Mr. Kootenay is a victim,” Quinn said. “He is a person who has some ideas and is firmly committed to his beliefs. We are not dealing with a criminal--he’s a character.”

Quinn said Kootenay is fervently religious and a staunch anti-government proponent who firmly believed in the Wisconsin group’s philosophy, which holds that the only true currency is silver and gold. The two leaders of the Wisconsin-based group have since been charged in federal court with forgery and fraud, officials said.

One of the group’s leaders, the Rev. Thomas Stockheimer, bills himself as the “Mortgage Breaking Preacher,” grand jury transcripts show. Federal investigators testified that Stockheimer and his organization charged between $50 and $500 for copies of the tract, which maintains that paper currency is illegal and instructs readers on how to use oney orders prepared by the group that investigators said are bogus.

Postal Inspector Robert Baumann told the grand jury that Kootenay’s name and address were found in documents seized during a raid of the Family Farm Preservation’s offices in 1994. Kootenay was indicted after a two-year federal and local investigation in which he refused to make good on the allegedly bogus money orders, the grand jury transcripts show.

Mike Scheumaker, a driver with United Parcel Service, told the grand jury he had delivered the six guns COD to Kootenay’s Thousand Oaks address on two occasions in 1994 when Kootenay wrote the money orders for a total of $5,213.14.

Scheumaker testified that he delivered guns COD to Kootenay 10 to 20 times that year and that Kootenay usually paid with cash. Often, Scheumaker testified, Kootenay would not wait for the UPS truck to stop at his house and instead would meet Scheumaker along his route first thing in the morning.

“He would come find me at the beginning of my route and take his packages,” Scheumaker testified. “Usually [he would] bring me a soda.”

A clerk in the Newbury Park UPS office also testified that Kootenay was a frequent customer who usually picked up packages containing guns and ammunition.

“He has a federal license to buy guns,” Quinn said. “Whatever your feelings about guns are, Mr. Kootenay had a legal right to buy and sell them.”

Kootenay has pleaded not guilty to the eight felony charges of forgery and fraud. But his trial has been delayed indefinitely until his mental competency is decided.

If Kootenay is deemed mentally unable to stand trial at the hearing next month, he will be placed in a mental institution until doctors determine he is sane enough to understand the legal proceedings.