United States Attorney John C. Richter Eastern District of Oklahoma April 7, 2008 CONTACT: Bob Troester                 405/553-8999

THREE INMATES’ CONSPIRACY AND EXTORTION SCHEME TO SEIZE THE PROPERTY OF FEDERAL PRISON OFFICIALS RESULTS IN ADDITIONAL 14-15 YEARS IN PRISON

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma, announced today that RUSSELL DEAN LANDERS, 56, was sentenced by United States District Judge Timothy D. DeGiusti to serve 180 months in prison for conspiring to impede the duties of federal prison officials and extortion in his efforts to gain release from prison by making financial demands on prison staff and attempting to seize their property. Landers was convicted by a jury in November of 2007 along with co-defendants CLAYTON HEATH ALBERS, 61, and BARRY DEAN BISCHOF, 60, who late last month were each sentenced to serve 168 months in prison.  The sentences for all three defendants were ordered to run consecutive to the federal prison sentences they are currently serving.

Landers, Albers, and Bischof were inmates at the federal prison in El Reno in late 2003 and early 2004.  Landers is serving a sentence related to his participation in an armed stand-off with the FBI at the Montana Freemen ranch in 1996.  The evidence at trial showed that in August of 2003, all three defendants claimed to have copyrighted their own names and then demanded millions of dollars from numerous prison officials for the purported unauthorized use of their names.  The evidence also included a credit report that individuals outside of the prison obtained on behalf of the defendants from a car dealership without the warden’s permission.  This credit report gave the defendants details about the warden’s bank accounts and personal and real property.  Recorded telephone calls and documents showed that in early 2004, after sending demand notices to the warden and attempting to file liens against the warden’s property, the defendants hired an individual to seize the warden’s vehicles, freeze his bank accounts, and change the locks on his house based on the fraudulent liens.  This individual turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.  Believing that the warden’s property had been seized, the defendants demanded to be released from prison before negotiating the return of the warden’s property.

Two other defendants were also charged in this case.  CARL ERVIN BATTS, 52, who is serving a federal prison sentence, and WILLIAM MICHAEL ROBERSON, 51, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, each pled guilty to conspiracy before the trial last fall. They are still awaiting sentencing and each faces a maximum penalty of six years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. 

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott E. Williams.