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Sunday, March 22, 1998

Authorities arrest man separatists say duped them

DALLAS (AP) - Oregon authorities have arrested a man nine Republic of Texas separatists allege duped them into believing they could legally print and distribute their own currency.

Ronald A. Griesacker was arrested Wednesday at a house near Medford, Ore., on federal bank and mail fraud counts from a federal indictment out of Wichita, Kan., The Dallas Morning News and The Kansas City Star reported Saturday.

The separatists want Griesacker to testify at their ongoing mail-fraud trial that began in Dallas on March 4.

The separatists' attorneys have argued that the separatists and leader Richard McLaren were duped by Griesacker.

The separatists are accused of trying to distribute $1.8 billion in worthless "warrants" that looked like cashier's checks. A number of businesses, including Visa and American Express, claimed losses of more than $350,000.

McLaren's attorney, Thomas W. Mills Jr., has asked U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish to have Griesacker transferred from Oregon to Dallas to testify.

Attorneys for the nine separatist said Griesacker was a government informant. They said he worked against the Republic of Texas and three other anti-government groups.

The defense thinks testimony from Griesacker could prove they were acting in good faith when they used the "warrants" to pay bills.

Steve Scheets, a special Internal Revenue Service agent, and Postal Inspector J.D. Butler, both of whom investigated the separatist group, said the defense's contention is "preposterous."

Scheets said he knows of no infiltration of the Republic of Texas by the government.

However, Mills argues that Griesacker entrapped Republic members, leading ultimately to their indictment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Uhl said the defendants should have known the "warrants" were invalid when two Republic members were arrested in November 1996 for trying to deposit $1.7 billion in "warrants" in Puerto Rican banks.

The prosecution is expected to conclude its case early next week.

Besides McLaren and his wife, Evelyn, defendants are Richard George Kieninger, Linh Ngoc Vu, Steven Crear, Jasper Baccus, Erwin Brown, Joe Louis Reece and Mark Anthony Hernandez.

McLaren already is serving a 99-year prison term for his role in last spring's kidnapping of a neighbor in the remote Davis Mountains Resort in West Texas. That triggered a weeklong standoff with 300 state troopers and Texas Rangers.

Separatists contend the annexation of Texas as a state in 1845 was illegal and that their leaders constitute the legitimate government of an independent nation of Texas.