-> SNETNEWS Mailing List --Leader of Montana Freemen gets 22 1/2-year sentence 12.54 p.m. ET (1754 GMT) March 16, 1999 By Tom Laceky, Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) The kingpin of the Montana Freemen carried his scorn for the federal government to the end today, refusing to enter the courtroom as a judge sentenced him to what his lawyer said amounted to a life sentence. Leroy Schweitzer, 61, was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for the 25 counts on which he was convicted. He had faced a maximum of 32 years. He and eight others were convicted in two trials last year of a host of crimes in support of what prosecutors described as a massive assault on the nation's banking system. They and their followers issued thousands of bogus checks totaling billions of dollars, based on fraudulent liens against banks, public officials and other individuals. About two dozen members of the group, living on a farm on the plains of eastern Montana, held an army of FBI agents at bay for 81 days in 1995 before surrendering without a shot being fired. Schweitzer and five other Freemen watched and listened by television from a holding cell in the courthouse today after refusing to enter the courtroom, as they have throughout their trials. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said he decided not to have marshals bring them into the courtroom forcibly out of concern for the safety of the defendants and the marshals. Three other defendants did enter the courtroom. Schweitzer, of Belgrade, Mont., was convicted of 25 counts, including conspiracy, bank fraud, threatening a federal judge, mail fraud, wire fraud, illegal possession of firearms, interstate transportation of stolen property, and participating in the armed robbery of an ABC news crew covering the Freemen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroups Spotlight: "Loads" - A "truckstop" support group for trucker families. http://offers.egroups.com/click/243/3 eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/piml Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -> Posted by: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
