Montana militia member sentenced for retaliation

[Joanne98]

Source: AP


ST. PAUL, Minn. – A founder of the Montana Freemen militia group who filed a false lien against a Seattle federal judge is the first person nationwide to be sentenced under a law that makes that a felony.

Sixty-seven-year-old Daniel Petersen was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to 7 years in prison. A jury convicted him in October of filing false liens against U.S. District Judge John Coughenour and two other judges in retaliation for sending him to prison.

The U.S. attorneys office in Minnesota says it was the first prosecution of its kind.




Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/04/07/1198372/montana-militia-member-sentenced.html

[Jefferson23]

1. Glad to hear it. This story goes back quite a ways:

FREEMEN THREAT IS LIEN, BUT LACKS BEEF
By HELEN KENNEDY

Monday, June 10th 1996, 2:00AM

From inside their FBI-ringed ranch, the Montana Freemen have threatened to seize homes of local lawmakers unless they start probing the federal government's actions in the 11-week stand-off.

Leaders of the militant anti-government group sent letters to several Montana legislators vowing to slap liens on their property if a grand jury isn't soon convened.

"The legislators have 10 days to start the inquiry into what authority the federal government has to send 'an armed body of men' to the Freemen compound," the letters said, according to the Great Falls Tribune in Montana.

The legalese-filled letters, mailed from Billings Friday, were signed by Daniel Petersen, LeRoy Schweitzer and Richard Clark. All three Freemen ringleaders are jailed in Billings. It was the arrests of Schweitzer and Petersen that sparked the standoff.

A person can put a lien on someone else's property as security for a payment of a debt, but the Freemen would have no legal justification for targeting Montana lawmakers. Some recipients were more amused than anything else.

"I think it's kind of funny, because I don't own any property," said State Rep. Joan Hurdle (D-Billings). "I live in an old trailer."

The brazen, ludicrous threat came during a period of heightened activity after weeks of stalemate.

For a third day, Freemen including leader Edwin Clark met with negotiators at the entrance to their isolated compound yesterday. The substance of the talks, held around a card table in the blistering 90-degree heat, was not revealed.

In the past week, the FBI has cut power to the ranch, brought in tanks and helicopters and brokered the release of four people on Thursday.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1996/06/10/1996-06-10_freemen_threat_is_lien__but_.html

[happygoluckytoyou]

2. IN A RELATED STORY mr and mrs palin claim alaska as the united state of palin

[formercia]

3. And we thought we got a good deal when the US bought Alaska from the Russians.

I bet the Russians are still laughing.