Defense Rests in Christines' Trial
05/09/2002
The lawyer for Brian and Ruth Christine rested his case Thursday, portraying Oregon's state child welfare agency as a disorganized, underhanded bureaucracy that had no right to take away the couple's three children.
The Christines, both 29, could face mandatory prison time if convicted on kidnapping and robbery charges. Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning.
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Defense attorney Edgar Steele has sought to deflect attention from the crimes by painting his clients as a young, deeply religious couple whose basic rights as parents were violated when the state Department of Human Services took custody of the children on July 31, 2000.
A social worker who handled the case said the girls were severely underweight and malnourished, requiring them to be hospitalized for four days. Prosecutor Rick Wesenberg plans to call the emergency doctor who treated them as his final witness on Friday.
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Lysbeth Borie, a mother of two who lives in an alternative community called Alpha Farm in Lane County, said that when the Christine family arrived in their converted bus for an extended visit in June 2000, the children seemed fine.
"They were not as exuberant as other kids, but relatively happy," Borie said.
Borie's family and the Christines went strawberry picking one day, and Brian and Ruth appeared to be "very kind, sincere people."
A close friend of Brian's, Peter Guthrie, came up from Los Angeles to testify in the Douglas County courtroom. Like many of the Christines' friends and relatives, Guthrie became concerned a few years ago when he heard Brian wasn't earning enough money making and selling soap from home, forcing him to sell the house. That's when they bought the bus, remodeled it, and set out on a cross-country adventure.
"I asked him, `Man, what are you doing living in a bus?"' Guthrie said. "His response was, `I want to spend every moment of my life with my kids."'
Brian Christine's mother, Teri Christine, also testified. She spoke of her frustration in dealing with the Oregon child-services department, claiming it "abducted" the three girls. She said her letters and phone calls about the case went unanswered, and that she wasn't allowed to talk to them by phone because she was a "security risk." She said she mailed the girls a camera as a Christmas present, so they could send back photos of them, but it was never delivered.
Soon after the Christines parked their bus on some land a few miles from Grants Pass in the summer of 2000, their landlord, Eric Reppert, began noticing problems. He never saw Miriam, the 2-year-old, outside the bus. "They were basically hiding her," Reppert said after testifying. Miriam was so tiny, about 15 pounds when taken to the hospital, that Reppert thought she was an infant.
Reppert was a witness for the prosecution, but he was recalled by Steele so the lawyer could attempt to link him to the abduction plot. Reppert traded two guns to Brian Christine, including the .357-caliber handgun used to reclaim the children. Reppert also took Christine to a firing range and traded him a car that later was used for the getaway.
Reppert also admitted that he told the Christines that if anyone ever tried to take his own kids, he'd "go down in a blaze of glory." But Reppert said he actually urged the Christines to cooperate with state officials, and tried to dissuade them from resorting to violence.
"All the advice I gave them in that regard was, `Don't do it,"' Reppert said. "I told them, `You are not Mr. and Mrs. Rambo."'
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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