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In a series of indictments returned by the state grand jury, 12 people have been charged with forgery, theft and filing false liens. Most had attended seminars in Montana where they had learned the Freemen technique of over-paying debts with phony checks and then quickly requesting a refund for the amount of the over-payment. The scam worked for Douglas Risch of Boulder – he paid his taxes with a fake $46,800 check and received a good refund check in the amount of $24,000.
Freemen leader LeRoy Schweitzer or one of his cohorts, Dale Jacoby, Daniel Peterson and Rodney Skurdal, issue and sign the checks. The Freemen refuse to recognize the legality of the federal banks, and based on their own interpretation of personal liberty, they print their own checks.
Those named in the indictments include the following:
Joseph Repak of Westminster issued three checks for a total of $1.6 million and attempted to pass them at car dealerships. He threatened to financially ruin several people at a Chevrolet dealer because they refused to accept a $750,000 check for a $75,000 Hummer. He threatened to file a lien against Chrysler Credit Corp. for refusing a $400,000 check to pay for vehicles that cost $193,000. Repak is charged with extortion.
Richard Reeser of Thornton, a former city councilman and the husband of Rep. Jeannie Reeser, D-Thornton, tried to help Repak cash a $500,000 check at the Platte Valley Bank.
Mary Severance of Pueblo distributed four checks for a total face value of over $380,000. She used a check to pay off a small business administration loan and also filed a lien naming 128 people. She’s charged with filing a phony lien.
Richard Walter Johnson of Pueblo is charged with filing false deeds on the homes of the Pueblo sheriff, two Pueblo judges, the Pueblo district attorney and his wife’s divorce attorney. The three checks he distributed amounted to over $800,000. He’s been arrested in Missouri and is currently fighting extradition to Colorado.
Douglas Risch of Boulder distributed five checks totaling over $820,000. Accepting the $24,000 refund check from the state earned Risch a charge of theft.
David Schiller of Colorado Springs distributed five checks totaling over $175,000. The checks were signed by Elizabeth Broderick, who is currently being prosecuted on federal charges in California. He used his checks to try to get money from banks and to pay state income taxes.
David Van Pelt of Colorado Springs tried to pass phony checks totaling $7,000 to county and city clerks.
Robert Glaser of Colorado Springs paid $700 in traffic fines in El Paso County with phony public money orders.
Barry Taylor of Westminster passed $33,000 in checks off on Citibank, Discover Services and White Crown Federal Credit Union. He’s been arrested in the heart of the Ozark Mountains near the retirement community of Kimberling City, Missouri, just down the road from music mecca Branson.
Judith Linton Clarke of Denver tried to pay a $34,000 property tax bill with a phony check. Five other checks she tried to pass totaled almost $100,000.
Rickie Allen Wilson of Conifer passed three checks totaling $45,000 and is charged with filing false liens in an attempt to clear the mortgage on his property.
Seven of those charged have been arrested in Colorado, two have been arrested in Missouri and the other three are fugitives.
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