COURT BARS FREEMAN FOLLOWER FROM FILING LIENS.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday barring a Palmdale woman associated with the controversial Freemen in Montana from placing bogus liens against federal employees and their families.

Calling the liens ``of no legal moment whatsoever,'' U.S. District Court Judge William Keller also ordered Elizabeth Broderick to provide a list to the court within 10 days of all of the federal employees she has filed liens against.

Following teachings of LeRoy Schweitzer, the arrested leader of the Freemen, Broderick has placed liens against people including a U.S. postal inspector, the U.S. postmaster general, FBI agents and court officials.

The Freemen reject almost all government authority and insist that they have their own laws and courts.

Approved Tuesday, the injunction overrides a temporary restraining order granted April 2 and will be in effect through the course of a trial for a permanent restraining order, officials said.

Officials say Broderick placed liens against them after they refused to validate the checks she prints, distributes and labels ``certified checks'' and ``comptroller's warrants.'' She says they are redeemable at the office of the U.S. postmaster.

In a separate court hearing earlier this month, for which Broderick failed to show, Keller granted a temporary restraining order against her and two others barring them from printing, distributing, promoting or referring to the checks.

Usually, creditors file liens on specific pieces of property or assets owned by debtors, to ensure that debtors are unable to sell those assets to any third party until the debt is paid.

Liens generally are recorded with a government agency, and anyone purchasing a major property usually checks with that government agency to ensure that the property about to be purchased is free of any liens.

But Broderick's ``liens'' were not filed on specific assets. Her liens, such as a $50 billion lien against the postmaster general and a postal inspector, were filed against the individuals, officials said.

Although Broderick again failed to show in court Tuesday, she did file a request for a 30-day postponement of the hearing early in the day.

In her request, which the judge denied and again said had ``no legal moment,'' Broderick claimed, among other things, that ``her perfected commercial liens was one of the several factors which contributed to the recent, widely publicized bankruptcy of the Orange, California state.''

Broderick claimed she needed more time to study paperwork relating to the bankruptcy. She also said she had a new attorney who needed to review the ``multiplicity of issues'' in the case.