Posted on 05/01/2002 3:33:06 PM PDT by RGSpincich
Kids told police dad hit daughter in head
By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 5/1/02 5:21 PM
ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) -- Brian and Ruth Christine's daughters told police that their father hit one of them in the head, causing her to fall down steps in the converted city bus they called home and cut her forehead, spreading "blood all over," a detective testified Wednesday.
Asked why he hadn't taken his daughter Lydia, then 3, to the hospital, Brian Christine "told me he was an Eagle Scout and he knew how to treat an injury," testified Grants Pass police detective Dan Evans.
"He told me his children were God's children, and if God chose to strike them down with lightning, that was his choice," Evans said.
The testimony came during a hearing on a defense motion to suppress evidence gathered when police first contacted the Christines in their bus on July 31, 2000, while it was parked at the library in Grants Pass in the course of their travels around the country.
The Christines, both 29, are on trial in Douglas County Circuit Court on charges of kidnapping, robbery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and custodial interference.
The state alleges that a year after social workers took the three girls into foster care to protect them from their parents, Brian Christine took the girls at gunpoint from a state social worker, met up with his wife and a friend, and escaped to Montana, where they were found within days.
In the course of pretrial motions, defense attorney Edgar Steele told Judge Robert Lasswell that he intended to present a "choice of evils defense," arguing that the Christines were rescuing their children from a state agency that was out of control.
Steele described the couple as fundamentalist Christians, who home-schooled their children and believed the state should not interfere with family life unless children were being harmed.
"They have seen their children taken to a hospital, stripped and examined in a sexual way," Steele said in describing his case. "The damage done to their children far exceeds anything they have done."
The Christines were allowed to see their children only once under supervision in the 12 months from the time they were taken into foster care and Aug. 1, when they took them from state social workers, Steele said.
"We've got a pair of parents that saw a local agency of government totally out of control -- acting illegally, acting immorally," Steele said. "They got (the children) out of harm's way."
According to Evans, police initially contacted the Christines after receiving an anonymous phone call reporting children who appeared malnourished. The family had been traveling the country in a city bus converted into a motor home, and had spent the past 45 days living at parks in the Grants Pass area.
Brian Christine sold computer software on an internet auction site, and routinely stopped at libraries to use the computers to check on his sales, Evans said.
Evans said four police officers were outside the Christines' bus in the parking lot behind the Josephine County Library when he was called in because he investigates allegations of child abuse.
Brian Christine sat in the driver's seat, his arms on the steering wheel, while Evans talked to the girls in the back. Miriam lay on her back, one arm over her head. Bethany and Miriam sat against a bed. Bethany was reading a book.
All the girls were very skinny, quiet and subdued, particularly Miriam, the youngest, Evans said. Lydia had a bandage on her forehead that had bled through and discoloration around one eye, he testified.
"I asked Lydia how she got the ow-ee," Evans said. "She told me she fell. Bethany was glancing at Brian. She said, `No you didn't.' Lydia glanced at Brian sitting up front and said, `Babba did it.' She told me blood was all over and it hurt very bad and she cried. I asked who Babba was and she pointed to Brian," Evans said.
"She said she was at the front of the bus and she peed. She said Babba was real mad," he testified.
Evans said when he asked Brian Christine if he had hit his daughter, he nodded, adding that he lost his temper and "tapped" her on the back of the head with his open hand and she fell.
Evans said he arrested Brian Christine on an assault charge and social workers took the three girls to a hospital.
I have experience in this regard given that my daughter was breast fed for 3 years. We do not eschew cows milk but families we know who do have children who do not fall into the "normal" categories. One such family had their children removed because a doctor was appalled that the family didn't serve cows milk to their children. It was 6 months before the woman got her kids back and they were returned with health problems due to the fact that the foster family disregarded the children's normal diets. It was relatively simple to find a doctor who would demolish the pediatrician's faulty advice and actions but the government doesn't work so fast.
Yeah...busing!
My daughter is 4 years old, was breast-fed for the first 18 months of her life, and weighs over 40 pounds. Try another tack.
They absolutely were. Unless the children have committed crimes, the police have no probable cause to speak with them. They do not have to incriminate their family and are not required to testify against their father. They have no idea that they have a right to remain silent and Dan Evans did not inform them of their rights. And they also filed no complaints with the police. Thus any notion that the police had a right to speak with them is false. And leading questions such as "did your daddy give you a boo boo?" are most certainly not appropriate.
you didn't know?
No red meat; the meat and milk she does consume are hormone-free. A family near us is strictly vegetarian; their children weighed more than 25 pounds at age 5.
This is an example of what I'm telling you--are you saying that witches from Salem (presumably Salem, Oregon) are burning Christians, and that said activity is funny?
you didn't know?
No, I didn't.
Again, I fail to see the relevance of your post to the topic under discussion.
"The Elian affair has truly given us a glimpse into the abyss of tyranny. The message that comes through loud and clear is that the system isn't working. The question that remains to be answered is whether we still possess the intelligence and fortitude necessary to fix it."
Edward Zehr(deceased...nov--2001) can(not) be reached at ezehr@capaccess.org
Published in the May. 22, 2000 issue of The Washington Weekly(defunct)
Copyright 2000 The Washington Weekly.
Now Free Access to All Stories at http://www.federal.com
How about the FACTS of this case, and the items under contention in the here and now?
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