Christine Trial: Judge denies 'choice of evils defense'

ROSEBURG, ORE. (AP) - A judge ruled Thursday that Ruth and Brian Christine cannot use a "choice of evils" defense against charges they took their three daughters at gunpoint from state child welfare workers.

The ruling undermines defense attorney Edgar Steele's plan to argue the couple was rescuing their children from a rogue state agency.

Judge William Lasswell said the threat to the Christines' three young daughters from being in foster care did not exceed the threat posed by the crimes the Christines are accused of.

"I do not believe this case as I have heard it so far ... meets that test," Lasswell said of Steele's planned "choice of evils" defense. "The children's services department was acting in a lawful way."

Brian Christine allegedly pointed a gun at state social workers driving the three girls - Bethany, then 5, Lydia, 3, and Miriam, 2 - back to a foster home following a visit with their parents on Aug. 1.

The Christines, both 29, are on trial in Douglas County court on charges of kidnapping, robbery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and custodial interference.

The state alleges that last August, a year after the Department of Human Services took the three girls into foster care to protect them from their parents, Brian Christine took the girls from a state social worker, met up with his wife and a friend, and escaped to Montana, where they were found within days.

Lasswell added that his ruling will not prevent Steele from offering evidence supporting his rescue argument but there will be no instruction to the jury that they can find the Christines innocent based on a "choice of evils" defense.

Lasswell left the door open for the defense to argue that the Christines were under such stress at the loss of custody of the three girls that their state of mind and capacity to tell right from wrong were affected.

Lasswell also denied a defense motion to suppress evidence the children were malnourished and one had been knocked down stairs by her father.

When police first confronted them on July 31, 2000, the judge said, the expectation of privacy inside a motor home in a public parking lot was not the same as that in a cottage in the woods with a fence around it and "No Trespassing" signs.

Lasswell rejected the Christines' testimony that they gave permission to a police officer to board the converted bus and talk to their children under coercion.

Following the rulings, jury selection began and was expected to last throughout the day Thursday.