HEARING DELAYED ON BAD CHECKS : PALMDALE WOMAN ALLIED WITH MONTANA FREEMEN.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer

A federal judge postponed a hearing Monday on a court order against a Palmdale woman and two other people accused of creating bogus checks and staging seminars to tell people how they can use the forgeries to pay off debt.

U.S. District Court Judge William Keller rescheduled the hearing on the temporary restraining order to Thursday because Mary Elizabeth Broderick, 53, and her two associates did not appear in court, officials said.

``I believe she will (show up),'' said Broderick's brother, Gordon Cowie of Toronto. ``She says she will have her papers filed and be ready to rebuff the feds in their attempt to smear her good name.''

Broderick has described herself as a follower of LeRoy Schweitzer, a leader of the anti-government ``Freemen'' group, which is engaged in a standoff with federal authorities in Montana that entered its seventh day Monday.

Cowie had said earlier Monday that Broderick was not going to the hearing to contest the order. ``She is going to file in the U.S. Supreme Court. That's what I think is going to happen,'' Cowie said.

Cowie said Broderick was out of state Monday, and may hold a press conference Wednesday. Cowie would not disclose Broderick's whereabouts. ``She's somewhere east of here. She doesn't want anybody to know where she is,'' Cowie said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a request for the court order last week against Broderick, Adolph Hoch of Loma Linda, and his daughter, Laura Marie Hoey of Moreno Valley, asking that they be prohibited from printing and distributing the checks, which Broderick says are backed by millions of dollars worth of claims against the government.

Schweitzer and another man were taken into custody last week during a standoff at the group's compound near Jordan, Mont. The self-styled Freemen reject almost all government authority and insist they have their own laws and courts.

The U.S. attorney's request for a restraining order came the same week that FBI agents searched the home and office of Broderick.

They also searched rooms at the Essex House hotel in Lancaster, where she had conducted seminars in which people were told how to place liens against property and use her ``comptroller's warrants'' or ``certified bankers checks'' to pay off debts, documents show.

At the workshops, Broderick told participants that each check represents an assignment of a multimillion-dollar ``lien,'' credit or debt she holds against the federal government based upon an illegal search conducted of a business she owned, according to court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Broderick's seminars and workshops in Lancaster have been attended by hundreds of people from as far away as Hawaii. Court records show they were charged up to $200.

Broderick, Hoey and Hock are accused of issuing warrants for more than $30 million, passing them out to people who in turn have presented them to banking institutions and tried to pay off large debts with them.

FBI officials have said one goal of the Freemen is to flood the banking system with fraudulent checks. Members have declared themselves a sovereign nation and believe they have the right to create their own financial instruments, FBI officials said.

Five Antelope Valley people investigated by the FBI in January attempted to use the checks to pay for 10 Cadillacs and four motor homes, to bail a person out of jail and to pay off large debts.

When banks or other businesses would not accept their checks, the people sent the institutions letters citing government codes and threatening to place liens on their property if the checks were not honored.