Las Vegan tied to Freemen

Cathy Scott

Tuesday, April 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A 70-year-old Las Vegas man accused of writing a bogus check from the anti-government Freemen group to cover his mother's funeral is fighting extradition to Texas.

Leonard Saye, a retired insurance broker, is accused of using the phony draft to pay for his mother's Feb. 12 burial in McLean, Texas. The check was signed by two Freemen arrested last month on similar charges. The words "lien draft" and "comptroller warrant" appear on the top of the check.

The document was "a worthless piece of paper drawn on the U.S. Department of Treasury," Gray County District Attorney John Mann said. "My information is that there has been a scam of this nature going on for quite some time in other parts of the country."

Saye put up a fight at his Las Vegas home at 5456 Viscount Carlson Drive when FBI agents and Metro Police knocked on his door Monday morning to arrest him. Saye has lived in the home near Maryland Parkway and Russell Road for about 20 years.

Police had to break down the door to get in. After gaining entrance, they used pepper spray to subdue the 6-foot-2, 200-pound man, said FBI Special Agent Debbie Calhoun.

Meantime, Saye has so far refused extradition, Mann said.

"I'm told he is not going to waive extradition," he said. "If he doesn't, we'll have to jump through extradition hoops and that will take us at least 90 days."

Saye faces one felony theft charge with a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison. Mann said he will file an organized crime charge against Saye if he can prove the check was part of a group effort to defraud people.

Deputy District Attorney Bill McMann said Texas authorities didn't know what Saye's connection to the Freemen group was, other than using a phony blank check from them.

"He presented a check that had the two names of the people arrested in Jordan, Mont., on it," McMann said.

The check was signed by LeRoy Schweitzer and Daniel Peterson, whose arrest March 25 spurred a standoff between federal agents and the Freemen, a group in Montana that rejects the U.S. government and its monetary system. FBI agents remained near the group's compound Monday.

An arrest warrant was issued about a week ago for Saye, and authorities in Texas notified the FBI of Saye's Las Vegas address.

The victims, owners of the Lamb Funeral Home, are out the $14,600 cost to bury Saye's mother, Mann said.

The victims tried to negotiate the check with a bank before notifying police, Mann said.

"The banker said he wouldn't have anything to do with it," Mann said. "It was a totally worthless document and part of a scam."

Patricia Saye, Saye's daughter, said Monday her father was not connected to the Freemen. She said she didn't know anything about the charges.

Ruth Brainard, who has lived across the street from Saye for 20 years, described him as a quiet man who used to participate in rodeos and work with horses. She said his wife is sociable housewife who sometimes talked about her husband's tax troubles.

"I've heard her talk about him having problems with the IRS. She would just say that he had problems with them -- like he owed them money," Brainard said Monday from her home where she witnessed the arrest.

Saye, who made a brief foray into GOP politics in 1988, listed his occupation as insurance and securities investments on a convention delegate survey. He went to the national GOP convention that year as a Pat Robertson supporter.

THE ASSOCIATED Press contributed to this report.

Saye