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Jury: Christines Guilty of Robbery, Acquitted of Kidnapping
Brian and Ruth Christine, the couple accused of taking their three daughters
at gunpoint rather than work through the legal system to regain custody, were
convicted of robbery Friday and face mandatory prison terms.
A Douglas County jury also found the Christines guilty of custodial
interference and unlawful use of a motor vehicle, but the 10 women and two men
on the panel acquitted them of felony kidnapping charges.
Under Measure 11 guidelines, the Christines, both 29, face minimum prison
sentences of 7½ years on the robbery charges. Brian Christine will face an
additional five years for using a firearm during the crime.
Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Edgar Steele said he was prepared for
convictions on the lesser charges but was "stunned" that the jury
found his clients guilty of robbery.
"Brian and Ruth Christine are good people," Steele said. "They
deserved better than this."
The Christines showed no emotion as the verdict was read. Ruth Christine
turned around toward her mother-in-law, Teri Christine, who was sitting among
roughly 15 supporters, and whispered, "I love you guys."
Later, as the defendants discussed possible sentencing dates with their
lawyer, Ruth Christine started sobbing and breathing heavily. Brian Christine,
sitting to the right of his wife, tried to comfort her, but a sheriff's deputy
separated them.
Sentencing was scheduled for May 28 before Circuit Judge William Lasswell.
Prosecutor Rick Wesenberg said he had not decided whether to ask for the
sentences to be served concurrently or consecutively. "I'm not being cagey.
I don't know," he said. "I haven't digested this all myself."
The robbery charged stemmed from the theft of the van and the case workers'
personal effects inside. The defense said that since the workers were told to
move only a short distance away from the vehicle, no kidnapping had occurred,
and the jury found the Christines innocent on those charges.
The children were taken by Brian Christine on Aug. 1, 2001 - a year and a day
after the state had assumed custody of Bethany, now 6; Lydia, 3; and Miriam, 2.
Case workers believed they had been abused and denied food.
During the six-day trial, the defense portrayed the state Services to
Children and Families as an overzealous, unsympathetic agency that should not
have had custody of the girls in the first place.
Steele also strongly criticized the prosecution's decision to put Bethany on
the witness stand. She said her father, whom she called "Baba," had
pointed a gun at "the people," and that her mother had joined them
wearing a blond wig.
"Just imagine her waking up one morning and thinking, `My mommy and
daddy have been in prison all these years, and my goodness, I'm the one that put
them there,"' Steele said.
The prosecutor said the Christines had numerous opportunities to show they
deserved to get them back, but they refused to comply with case workers'
conditions by missing appointments and declining to attend anger-management
counseling.
Just as the couple told friends they were going to cooperate, Wesenberg said,
they hatched a "clever" scheme to swipe them:
The Christines left early from a supervised visit in Grants Pass so they
could scope out the van that would take the girls to their foster home in
Bandon. The Christines guessed that the two case workers in the van would stop
at a rest area about an hour north of Grants Pass.
The prosecutor said Brian Christine waited until everyone was back in the van
before he approached it and pointed a .357-caliber handgun at case worker Terry
Nelson on the driver's side. He then ordered the other worker, Jennifer Barrett,
to step away from the vehicle. Christine drove off, ditched the van about two
miles away and met up with his wife and a friend before they fled to Montana.
The Christines were apprehended three days later, after Brian was stopped for
speeding. The girls were taken back into custody and now live with Ruth
Christine's parents in her native England.
The couple have two other daughters who were born after the Christines'
custody troubles began: Olivia, 17 months, and Abby Rose, 7 months. They live
with Teri Christine in Indiana.
"I'm so sorry that my family set foot in the state of Oregon," she
said after the verdict.
The girls were initially taken into state custody after an anonymous tip led
police to the converted bus where the family was living. The children appeared
severely malnourished and underweight.
Two-year-old Miriam was so small she looked like a famine victim from "Biafra
or Ethiopia," said Dr. James Giesen, who treated the girls in the emergency
room of the Three Rivers Community Hospital in Grants Pass.
Giesen, the last witness to testify Friday, said Lydia had a fractured skull
and a cut on the right side of her forehead that had not healed. 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."
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
ROSEBURG
- By LANDON HALL
Associated Press Writer