Judge Delays Trial in ‘Freeman’ Case

An attorney for self-proclaimed “freeman” Timothy Paul Kootenay told a judge Tuesday that his client is working to make good on two bogus money orders he gave to a gun dealer to buy six assault rifles.

With that news, Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren agreed to delay Kootenay’s fraud trial until September in hopes that a resolution can be reached before that.

The Ventura County Grand Jury indicted the Newbury Park tree-trimmer earlier this year on eight charges of fraud and related crimes. He is accused of using two counterfeit money orders manufactured by a militant anti-government group that believes U.S. currency is illegal.

But before the indictment was handed down, the 35-year-old Kootenay ignored a grand jury subpoena to testify and fled Ventura County. He was caught in Montana in April and extradited to Ventura. On Friday, Kootenay was released from jail after his mother helped him post $25,000 bail.

Kootenay’s attorney, Neil B. Quinn, admits that his client bought six semiautomatic rifles with two bogus money orders totaling more than $5,200 in 1994. Kootenay, who held a federal gun-selling license, often bought and sold semiautomatic rifles, grand jury transcripts showed.

Quinn, who has portrayed his client as an impressionable victim of the militia movement, said Kootenay and his family are working to pay off the rifle dealer and that Kootenay’s legal problems, his first serious brush with the law, are nothing more than a “bad check case,” which usually results in a sentence of probation as long as restitution is made.