Freemen Leader Will Stay In Jail Until Trial

A leader of the Montana freemen during the group’s standoff with federal agents will remain in jail until his upcoming trial on federal charges in North Carolina, a judge has ruled.

Russell Dean Landers, 45, who was brought from Montana to his former home state last week, appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court here. He wore handcuffs and shackles.

Landers, who faces seven criminal counts stemming from an antigovernment group he helped form in eastern North Carolina, was denied bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Alexander Denson. Although a date hasn’t been set, Landers could be tried on the North Carolina charges as early as next month.

A North Carolina grand jury indicted Landers in July on charges that include conspiracy to commit bank fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property and conspiracy to intimidate an Internal Revenue Service agent.

The indictments charge that Landers and other members of an anti-government group called the Civil Rights Task Force tried to force two IRS agents to appear before a “common-law” court and threatened them with $100 million in bogus liens.

The indictments also allege Landers took money from a freemen-sponsored bogus check scheme to buy a motor home in Raleigh, and used the vehicle to move his family to Montana in February.

Landers and his wife, Dana Dudley, moved to a rural area of Johnston County in 1994. In February, the two sought refuge at the freemen ranch after failing to appear for a fraud trial in Colorado.