Christines Guilty of Robbery, Acquitted of Kidnapping

05/10/2002

By LANDON HALL, AP Staff

An Oregon couple accused of taking their children from state workers at gunpoint were found guilty Friday evening of robbery, custodial interference and unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

The ten-member jury took less than three hours to reach the verdict.

Ruth and Brian Christine in court. (KGW Photo)

The Christines, both 29, face minimum prison sentences of 7 1/2 years on the robbery charges. Brian Christine will face an additional five years for pointing a gun at child welfare workers last August to take his three daughters -- Bethany, then 5; Lydia, 3; and Miriam, 2.

Circuit Court Judge William Lasswell set sentencing for May 28.

The Christines showed no emotion as the verdict was read. However, Ruth Christine started sobbing and breathing heavily when discussing the sentence with defense attorney Edgar Steele.

The three Christine daughters. (KGW Photo)

Outside the courtroom, Steele said he was prepared for his clients to be convicted on the lesser charges, but he was "stunned" that the jury found them guilty of robbery.

"Brian and Ruth Christine are good people," Steele said. "They deserved better than this."

The case was closely watched nationally by child-safety advocates, as well as anti-government activists wary of bureaucratic meddling among families.

Brian Christine took his daughters after forcing two case workers out of a state van at gunpoint on Aug. 1, 2001, following a supervised visit in Grants Pass.

Prosecutor Rick Wesenberg said the Christines left early from the supervised visit so they could scope out the van that would take the girls back to their foster home in Bandon. The Christines guessed that the two case workers in the van would stop at an Interstate 5 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, pointing a .357-caliber handgun at case worker Terrence 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, and the girls taken back into custody, a few days later after Brian was stopped for speeding.

Steele had sought to deflect attention from the crimes by painting his clients as a deeply religious couple whose basic rights as parents were violated when the state Department of Human Services took custody of the children on July 30, 2000.

State workers who handled the case said the girls were severely underweight, dehydrated and malnourished, requiring them to be hospitalized for four days. Miriam was only 15 pounds and was so emaciated that a neighbor assumed she was an infant.

The defense argued that the children were naturally slight of build, like their parents.

Wesenberg said the Christines repeatedly refused several conditions set by the state Services to Children and Families: They missed appointments, were reluctant to undergo psychological examinations and declined to take anger-management courses.

"That's it. That's what they needed to do," Wesenberg said during closing arguments Friday. "Instead, they chose confrontation at every turn."

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."

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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