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Kidnap charges against Christines withdrawn in tactical move
Prosecutor Rick Wesenberg says he made a tactical decision to instead file
charges alleging the two social workers driving the three Christine girls back
to a foster home were the kidnapping victims.
That move and other pretrial action postponed the start of jury selection in
the case being heard in Roseburg. It is now set to begin Wednesday afternoon.
Defense attorney Edgar Steele filed a motion to suppress evidence seized in a
search of the converted bus the Christines were living in when their children
were taken into state custody back in July 2000.
He argued it was taken in an illegal search.
Steele has maintained that the Christines were rescuing their children from
an out-of-control state agency when Brian Christine took them at gunpoint from
social workers last August.
(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
ROSEBURG
- The prosecutor in the trial of Ruth and Brian Christine today withdrew charges
they kidnapped their own children from state social workers.