Bogus Money Buys the American Dream

PALMDALE — Armed with a unique interpretation of their rights as American citizens, the students of M. Elizabeth Broderick fanned out across the high desert in search of the American dream.

One man rented a two-story house in a Canyon Country subdivision at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. A family ordered three RVs with all the extras. Another bought eight Cadillacs.

The trouble was, say federal prosecutors, the checks used were bogus, supported only by a singular understanding of the law shared by Broderick with Montana Freeman leader LeRoy Schweitzer.

Federal officials allege that more than $30 million worth of fraudulent checks written by Broderick have made their way into financial institutions across the nation. Broderick gives lessons in Palmdale every other week on how to write a “comptroller’s warrant” against the U.S. government--worthless documents that have been translated into free money for her thousands of disciples, according to court documents.

Since November the checks--bearing the words “Redeemable at Office of Postmaster . . . Payable on sight”--have raised eyebrows among businesspeople and homeowners in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys. Now the feds are paying attention.

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On March 25, the same day that Schweitzer was arrested in Montana, sparking a weeklong standoff with the freemen, FBI agents served a search warrant at Broderick’s home in Palmdale and seized computers, disks, telephones and antique guns.

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles is seeking an injunction to keep Broderick from issuing more checks, but it’s too late for people like Nancy Cole of the San Fernando Valley.

A 46-year-old single mother of two, Cole says she’s lost thousands of dollars because the tenant in a Canyon Country house she owns left her with “warrants” endorsed by Broderick and Schweitzer for nine months rent.

“For anybody who thinks this group is not harming people, this has cost me every dime I have in savings,” Cole said. “I’m living from paycheck to paycheck.”

Broderick’s allies say she is only trying to empower her students by enabling them to pay off debts. “She is doing a service as a sovereign in trying to explain to people what government is, what common-law government is,” said a woman who would identify herself only as Myra,who was at the federal courthouse on Monday. She said she was there to file papers opposing the request for an injunction against Broderick, who is out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Also outside the courthouse Monday was Isobel Oxx, 65, of Westlake Village, a former Realtor who has attended Broderick’s seminars.

“She’s got a very generous heart,” Oxx said. “Isn’t everybody in the United States in debt?”

At her two-day seminars, usually held at the Essex House Hotel and Racquet Club in Lancaster, attendees pony up $125 in advance, or $200 at the door, for two luncheon buffets, documents on sovereignty and common law, and a request form for one “warrant,” according to court documents.

Broderick argues that the checks are backed by a lien she has taken against the government, and her allies say that until a judge or jury declare the documents invalid, federal agents have no authority to hamper Broderick.

The U.S. attorney disagrees, alleging in court papers that Broderick is committing mail fraud by sending the valueless checks through the mail and stressing that she must be stopped before she holds her next seminar on Sunday. About 500 people attend each of Broderick’s seminars, officials say.

A federal court judge is scheduled to decide Thursday whether to grant the injunction.

After Broderick’s first classes in the high desert, her checks surfaced in unusual places. One December morning, a family plunked down a $300,000 check at Young’s RV in Lancaster for three fully furnished coaches. They told owner Roy Padgett to keep the few thousand in change.

But after Padgett’s banker, Wayne Rosenberger of First Valley Bank, warned him that the check was worthless, Padgett returned the check and told the prospective buyers: No deal.

Days later, Rosenberger received a fax from Broderick, who referred to herself as “Sovereign by the Grace of Yahveh through Yeshua the Messiah her Savior and Redeemer” and warned Rosenberger that he was required to accept the warrant.

Rosenberger called the FBI. “If the average person writes a bum check you go after them,” he said in an interview. “Here’s a group that does it and threatens you when you don’t cash it. And these guys just walk away.”

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But the FBI was already looking into the checks, authorities say. One noteworthy case was the use of the “warrants” to buy eight Cadillacs from Rally Motors in Lancaster, according to a spokesman for the dealer. The cars were eventually repossessed.

And Cole was calling the FBI about her tenant, who since July had issued checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars signed by Broderick. But those un-cashable checks do her no good--what she needs is the $18,000 in back rent she is owed, Cole said.

Cole is trying to evict the man and his family, adding hefty legal fees to her already strained budget. Outside the courthouse Monday an exasperated Cole confronted Isobel Oxx, the Broderick pupil.

“This isn’t a political thing,” Cole told Oxx of the checks. “It’s hurting me.”

* PROTEST CAMP: Idaho ‘freemen’ go to Montana. A9