A federal jury convicted Roger Steiner of Baker City, Ore. last month in the beating of Karen Mathews, the Stanislaus County, Calif. clerk-recorder.
"Recorders all over the country are being targeted by people with the same idealogy," Mathews said.
The federal jury in Fresno, Calif. convicted Steiner and eight other members of the anti-tax group Juris Christian Assembly of obstructing the operation of the Internal Revenue Service. Government lawyers for Mathews said her refusal to remove a valid tax lien against a member of the group led to her attack Jan. 30, 1994 (see County News, 2/3/97, page 7).
That's when Steiner, who claims he's innocent, met Mathews in her garage, where he attacked her.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 14.
Mathews relayed her story last week in an address to the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers, meeting in Philadelphia.
She made her comments at a seminar on bogus liens, when people - many of them members of militia groups - file phony documents making a claim on someone's property.
"There is still education that needs to be done - especially for people in Congress," Mathews said. She says she'll testify, if asked, before Congress to help push a bill that would toughen penalties associated with threats against local officials.
In the meantime, she's getting the word out in the media. Last week, The New York Times published an editorial she wrote about her experience, CBS Anchorman Dan Rather was expected to talk with her, and producers from "60 Minutes" called about interviewing her for an upcoming segment.
"I want to make sure the public knows what happened here,"
she said. "It can happen anywhere."