Kidnapping trial

May 6, 2002 permalink

A trial is taking place now in Oregon that could alter the future of child protection in the United States, and the results might well spread to Canada.

Brian Christine is a Purdue graduate, formerly worked in a Christian summer camp for small children, and was active in several other religious groups. His wife Ruth Christine is a graduate of the University of Kent, formerly taught English to Tibetan refugees as a volunteer and also worked for a Mother Teresa home for children and adults with disabilities. Neither had ever been in trouble with the law before 2000. The Christines lived with three young daughters in a bus converted into a mobile home, touring the United States. On July 31, 2000 Oregon Services to Children and Families (SCF) seized the three young girls following an anonymous tip that the girls looked dehydrated. SCF later said the girls were malnourished from a vegetarian diet and one had a skull fracture. They pronounced the malnourishment cured in two weeks. The skull fracture was found only after repeated examination by different doctors, and no X-ray evidence has been presented. It was possibly a misinterpretation of a bruise under a Band-Aid.

During the next year the Christines saw their daughters only twice. The second time, Brian Christine took possession of them, allegedly at gunpoint, and fled with them to Montana. The parents were both arrested in Montana a few days later. Since the original seizure, Ruth has given birth to two more girls, one of them while shackled to a bed during part of her labor.

The couple is now on trial for kidnapping, and faces decades in prison if convicted. The stakes are enormous for the child protection industry. If the Christines are acquitted by the jury, it could mean armed guards accompanying children on every parental visit, and security perimeters around foster homes.