United States v. John P. McGuire United States of America v. Cherlyn Petersen

Defendants-Appellants John P. McGuire and Cherlyn Petersen were members of a group known as the Montana Freemen. They were convicted of bank fraud for participating in a scheme that involved printing bogus checks on a home computer and trying to exchange them for real currency. Petersen asserts that wiretapping conducted by the FBI during its investigation violated the federal wiretap statute because wiretapping was not “necessary” and because agents did not follow adequate minimization procedures during their interception of facsimile transmissions. McGuire asserts that the wiretap recordings were improperly sealed. He challenges the district court’s decision to admit a witness’s prior testimony when the witness was seven months pregnant and had a note from her doctor stating that the pregnancy prevented the witness from testifying. McGuire also asserts ineffective assistance of trial counsel. We affirm.

I

McGuire and Petersen were members of a group called the “Montana Freemen,” which was hostile to the United States government. The Freemen attempted to establish their own government and financial system. To this end, they printed and distributed thousands of…