Posted on 05/02/2002 2:19:56 PM PDT by RGSpincich
With a corrupt jury being chosen as we speak.
No, it's not just you.
How can this be? Posters from previous threads have been insisting that there is no evidence that the children were not being properly cared for.
Steele's argument got broomed? The Christines are toast because of all the admissions they've made. I'm still with the jury out 2 hours--IF they take a lunch break & cig break that adds up to 1 1/2 hours.
Well, um, not exactly camping facilities. Most Walmarts--usually the Superstores, open 24 hours--look the other way when it comes to a few campers & RV's parked in their lot. I distinctly remember some municipalities in Florida banning overnight parking/camping at Walmarts & I saw a sign that banned overnight parking/camping at a Walmart in Panama City a couple years ago. I've also seen RV's parked in Walmarts around here. No one really cares.
I see some of them changing their tune on a variety of subjects. One, who posted to you last August, said that the reported weights of the girls had to be bogus. He said that the reported weights were "not at all healthy even on a vegitarian diet." The same guy now says the weights were normal given the diet of the Christines.
That's a rough one. ; )
The parking lot issue was a sidelight, IMO, the police were given permission to enter the motorhome.
More wrangling today in the case of an Oregon couple accused of taking their daughters from state social workers at gunpoint. Today the judge ruled the daughters of Ruth and Brian Christine can be called to testify in the trial if they pass a competency hearing, which tests their ability to know right from wrong and the importance of telling the truth.
Prosecutors have reserved the right to call all three girls to testify, but defense lawyers believe the prosecution is primarily interested in questioning the couples oldest daughter, Bethany, who was five at the time of the alleged crime last year.
Well, they're probably going to lose, badly.
That figures. Steele predicted victory on Day One.
And now they have a jury.
Jury seated in Christines' trial
By JEFF BARNARD
ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) -- A jury was seated Friday in the trial of Ruth and Brian Christine, who are charged with taking their three daughters at gunpoint from child welfare workers.
A panel of nine women and three men was chosen after defense attorney Edgar Steele and prosecutor Rick Wesenberg questioned a pool of 38 people over the course of two days on subjects that included their attitudes about fundamental Christians, state child welfare agencies, and whether religious beliefs could justify breaking the law.
The Christines, both 29, face charges of kidnapping, robbery, custodial interference and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
The state maintains that on Aug. 1, Brian Christine threatened two child welfare workers with a gun at an Interstate 5 rest stop as the workers were driving the Christines' children -- Bethany, then 6; Lydia, 4, and Miriam, 3 -- back to a foster home following a birthday visit with their parents in Grants Pass.
According to police, Brian Christine took the state van with the girls in it to a nearby lumber yard, where he met up with his wife and a friend. They then switched cars, and escaped to Montana, where they were all found a few days later, police said.
The defense maintains that the couple was rescuing their children from a rogue state agency, the Department of Human Services, after having their children unjustly taken from them a year earlier.
Steele has described the couple as fundamental Christians, and the couple testified in a pretrial hearing that they occasionally fasted as a family for breakfast and lunch as a religious practice.
Authorities took the three girls from the Christines on July 31, 2000 after police, tipped by an anonymous caller, questioned them in their bus, parked behind the library in Grants Pass. Police decided the girls were malnourished and one of them, Lydia, had been hit by her father so that she fell down the stairs, cutting her forehead.
The couple face another trial scheduled for July in Grants Pass on charges alleging they mistreated the girls by withholding food, that Brian Christine had assaulted Lydia, and that Ruth Christine had withheld medical treatment from Lydia.
Just before court convened for the day, Steele accidentally struck himself in the eye with the end of an elastic cord while unpacking documents, causing a short delay. Wesenberg told the potential jurors that he was mopping sweat from his brow because he had a fever.
Steele has described the couple as fundamental Christians, and the couple testified in a pretrial hearing that they occasionally fasted as a family for breakfast and lunch as a religious practice.
Is it religion or is it rationing? I haven't heard of this religous practice.
The usual fast is not to eat during the day, but after sundown/the evening meal broke the fast.
Okay but it seems a little tough on small kids.
I can only find the old stuff, 1980's and back. Don't see any RACER listings for Douglas County.
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