DELAY GRANTED IN SENTENCING OF `LIEN QUEEN'.

Byline: Denise Levin Associated Press

M. Elizabeth Broderick, convicted of running a bogus check scheme based on the anti-government principles of the Freemen group, was granted a delay in sentencing by a federal judge Monday.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian postponed sentencing until March 10 after Broderick said she did not have documents she had sent to her home for a paralegal to work on.

She said the government has been confiscating mail sent to her home.

Tevrizian issued an order granting her use of facilities to reconstitute the documents, which Broderick said were her response to a pre-sentencing hearing.

Sentencing of two associates, Julian Cheney and Barry Switzer, also was continued.

Broderick, the self-proclaimed ``Lien Queen,'' was found guilty in October on 26 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering after a five-week trial in which she represented herself.

The jury deadlocked on one count, which Tevrizian dismissed in a mistrial.

The three were accused of issuing 8,000 phony checks, with a face-value total of $800 million, that supposedly were backed by liens against the government, and netted a $1 million profit.

Prosecutors said the checks were issued at paid seminars they held in Lancaster. They told seminar attendees that the checks could be used to pay off debts, although Broderick would not accept them as payment for the course.

Broderick, 52, had declared herself a ``sovereign'' and renounced her U.S. citizenship, claiming she is not subject to federal laws and is a political prisoner.

Reportedly, Broderick learned the check scheme during a meeting with Montana Freemen leader Leroy Schweitzer.

Broderick also has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Tevrizian and other federal officials seeking $85 million in ``gold U.S. dollars.''