Posted on 05/10/2002 9:38:38 PM PDT by RGSpincich
No kidding.
Christines' custodial case ends in convictions
05/11/02
ALICE TALLMADGE
ROSEBURG -- A jury convicted Brian and Ruth Christine on Friday of robbery, custodial interference and stealing a state van while taking their three small children from state social workers last summer.
But the couple were acquitted of kidnapping the two state employees caring for the children.
After a week of testimony, the panel of 10 women and two men deliberated for about three hours before delivering the unanimous verdicts.
Douglas County Circuit Judge William Lasswell set sentencing for May 28.
Ruth Christine put her head in her hands and sobbed when the verdict was read, then turned to her supporters in the courtroom and said, "I love you guys." Authorities then took her into custody. Brian Christine, who has been in custody since his arrest last year, showed no emotion.
The Christines were accused of taking their children at gunpoint from state social workers on Aug.1 at an Interstate 5 rest stop. The children -- Bethany, 6; Lydia, 4, and Miriam, 3 -- had been in protective custody for a year following allegations of neglect.
The jury found that Brian Christine used a gun during the crimes, which could lengthen his sentence.
The Christines' attorney, Edgar Steele, said he would appeal the verdicts.
"I'm flabbergasted by this result. That they would actually get hit with any of those Measure 11 charges just stuns me," he said.
Brian Christine was accused of forcing social workers Terrence Nelson and Jennifer Barrett out of their state van at gunpoint after a supervised visit with the girls in Grants Pass. Christine drove off with the van and the children. He was stopped for speeding three days later in Montana. The girls and Ruth Christine were found the next day at a remote Montana residence.
Deputy District Attorney Rick Wesenberg was pleased with the verdict and speculated that jurors may have acquitted the couple of the kidnapping charges because that was incidental to the robbery.
"I think that the jury was looking at this act principally as a robbery: the armed taking of a vehicle at gunpoint," he said. "It fits the terms of robbery better than kidnapping."
Although the kidnapping charges involved the social workers, much of the trial focused on the condition of the girls. Steele insisted to the jury that the state had no valid reason to take the girls from their parents in July 2000, making the Christines desperate.
"They've only done one thing -- they tried to destroy this family. And they've done it," Steele said, his eyes tearing up. "They've destroyed a beautiful family -- and that ain't right."
But Wesenberg said in his closing argument that the Christines broke the law.
"What this case comes down to is choices," Wesenberg told the jury. "Now it's time for these two defendants to deal with the consequences of their choices."
Wesenberg said he wanted the trial to focus just on the charges but admitted that would have been naive given the "hoo-ha" surrounding why the girls were taken into protective custody.
The final witness was emergency room physician Jim Giesen, who testified that the Christine children were "very emaciated" when he saw them at Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass.
Giesen described a wound on Lydia's head that emitted such a foul odor that some of the emergency room staff were forced to leave the room. He also noted bruising around her right eye and blood behind her right ear drum, both indications of a skull fracture. Subsequent X-rays confirmed the diagnosis, he said.
But Miriam's condition upset the staff the most, he said.
"She was a quiet, withdrawn, noninteractive child," he said. "She looked like somebody from Africa or Ethiopia. None of us had ever seen a child in this condition in all our years in the ER."
The three girls have been adopted by their maternal grandparents in England. The Christines' two youngest children are in the custody of Brian Christine's mother, who lives in Indiana.
You can reach Alice Tallmadge at 541-741-6256 or by e-mail at a.tallmadge@worldnet.att.net.
Whatever else may be said of events, the above was ill done by the deputy -- needlessly cruel, IMNSHO.
Tuor
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But their racist loser attorney got his face time on national TV. The Christines were used one more time.
BTTT
Chicken Little.
Burris and Brian become bunk buddies.
If this had been anyone else -- car thieves stealing from private citizens for joy riding for example -- the prosecutor would have opted for something less than robbery. But you see this case is a private citizens using property belonging to state officials -- a totalitarian state "no-no". !!!! They might have been so lucky as to be treated as car thieves who, even after deadly car chases, get less than 6 months incarceration.
The one good thing resulting from the publicity in this case is that the children didn't wind up in the hands of the state of Oregon and its sanctioned child-abusing surrogates, but under the care of the grandparents. One wonders that had the Christines not done what they did, whether their children would be with the grandparents now or in the home of some alternative lfestyle fosterparent for which Oregon is well-known.
A little extra money in the hands of these parents, or perhps the offer by the state of free medical care and food for the children, without having to terminate their parental rights to the state first, might have gone a long way to helping the family. But no -- that would mean that the state is a magnanimous institution that gives out free lunches. It is really in the business of controlling the lives of its citizens not for their sake but for the state's sake.
Perhaps the judge and jury will have some second thoughts and sleepless nights before the sentencing phase --- perhaps --
Did you read the same article I did? Or are you so blinded by your paranoia of child protective services, that you'll believe anything?
The doctor testified the following:
The emergency-room doctor who treated the girls at Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass was the last witness to testify. Dr. James Giesen said he had never seen children so emaciated. Two-year-old Miriam was so small she looked like a famine victim from "Biafra or Ethiopia," Giesen said.He said the girls showed obvious signs of abuse and neglect. Ruth Christine told the doctor that her husband had struck Lydia, causing her to fall down some stairs. Giesen said X-rays and a CAT scan revealed a fracture at the base of her skull. Also, she had a cut on the right side of her forehead that had not healed, and the wound was so badly infected that it gave off a bacterial smell of feces.
"The odor almost overwhelmed the room," Giesen said. "A couple of us stepped out."
These are your "Christian family?" No, they are devils straight from the pit of hell. I've come into professional contact with abused children-- and I must say, anyone who would injure a child is the lowest of the low. Jesus Christ indictated as much, too. "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Mat 18:6).
I'll save my tears for someone who actually deserves it. These guys deserve to rot in jail for the rest of their natural lives. The criminal justice system, once again, worked.
It doesn't matter how they feel. They didn't own the van. The intent to rob was obviously not there.
Brian didn't own the van that he took by force at gunpoint.
Looks like you didn't get that OJ jury you were hoping for.
Reading minds? Their "intent" is an afterthought.
Seem to remember having this conversation and somebody's assurance about respecting the jury's decision.
Looks like you didn't get that OJ jury you were hoping for.
Barabbas? Rhetoric aside, disprove my point...
A fascist attitude in support of fascist actions by the fascist state of Oregon 'protective services'.
Personally, my heart aches for a family that that has been destroyed by the very people charged with helping families.
You can crow all you want, but this is not a victory for justice, it is a travesty of justice...and a very sad day for our republic.
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