Jailed jeweler filing motions to harass man he defrauded (Not COS)
03 Jan 2001
Published Tuesday, January 2, 2001, in the Miami Herald
Jailed jeweler filing motions to harass man he defrauded
WEST PALM BEACH -- (AP) -- A jeweler who defrauded such people as golfer
Jack Nicklaus has teamed up in prison with a right-wing extremist and is
trying to use his fellow prisoner's tactics to harass his enemies,
authorities and lawyers say.
Borrowing an idea from extremist LeRoy Schweitzer, jeweler Jack Hasson
has filed bogus motions and liens in Circuit Court against retired
developer and Detroit TV station owner Aben Johnson, from whom he stole
$83 million, and Johnson's attorneys, authorities say. Both men are
housed in a federal prison at Edgefield, S.C.
Schweitzer led the Montana Freemen, who used similar tactics to harass
enemies and conned banks, businesses and public agencies out of $1.8
million by using bogus checks, liens and other legal maneuvers. When
federal agents moved in to arrest the Freemen on a foreclosed Montana
farm in 1996, a standoff ensued that lasted 81 days. The siege ended
peacefully.
Court officials have refused to accept Hasson's motions.
``We have turned down a number of filings by Freemen,'' said Dorothy
Wilken, Palm Beach County court clerk. ``Ordinarily, we don't have the
right to pass judgment on what people try to make a part of the public
record, but we take the position that if something is not a legal
instrument . . . we won't put it in the public record.''
The Freemen called the Montana farm Justus Township. When Schweitzer
signed Hasson's documents as a witness, he identified himself as ``Chief
Justice . . . Justice's Court in and for Garfield County, Justus
township, country of Montana.''
Hasson is serving a 40-year sentence following his conviction last year
on fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice charges.
He sold fake, altered and overpriced gems to Johnson, Nicklaus and
others.
Schweitzer is serving a 22-year sentence for fraud, firearms violations,
conspiracy and threatening public officials.
Hasson has also filed ``judgments'' of $1.5 billion against Johnson and
$750 million each against his attorneys, Joe McSorley and Alan Mishael.
He wants to be paid in gold or silver.
McSorley said Hasson's filings are the act of a ``vindictive, petty
little man,'' and said he doesn't believe Hasson has adopted
Schweitzer's beliefs.
``It's hard for me to see Jack Hasson ever subscribing to any organized
belief system,'' McSorley said.
``This is an opportunity to attempt to inflict misery on those he blames
for his predicament.''
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