Wednesday, August 11, 1999
Dad's release goal of papers, defendant says
Roten testifies without lawyer
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — Larry Roten said he just wanted to have his dad back. But Warren County officials refused to release the 90-year-old ailing man from the Lebanon Health Care Center.
Mr. Roten, on trial in the state's first prosecution of a 1996 law, admitted Tuesday that the court's refusal spurred him to send documents to public officials seeking his father's release — or a hefty sum of money.
It was the only recourse, he said, against an “unlawful” government that had kidnapped his father.
Taking the stand in his own defense while acting as his own lawyer, Mr. Roten would not admit that his actions were retaliation.
The public officials, he said, were merely “part of the conspiracy.”
Mr. Roten faces 18 counts of retaliation, intimidation and using a sham legal process against Warren County Prosecutor Tim Oliver, Clerk of Courts James Spaeth and Paul Woodbury, a foreman on the grand jury that indicted Mr. Roten. The case is expected to go to the jury today.
The first two days of trial were marked by repeated objections from the prosecutor and Mr. Roten, as well as a threat by Judge George Elliot to remove Mr. Roten from the courtroom for not obeying his orders. Prosecutors grilled Mr. Roten about his beliefs and actions Tuesday.
Special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier also tried to portray Mr. Roten, who has a ministry that promotes the common-law movement, as a selfish man who refused to work and only wanted custody of his father because the man was his “meal ticket.”
He pointed out that Mr. Roten revoked his U.S. citizenship because he doesn't believe in modern-day government, yet he reserved the right to receive Social Security benefits.
Mr. Roten said he only wanted back what he paid into the system when he was employed. He said his distrust of the government began in 1992 when his father was placed in a nursing home for the first time under the county's guidance.
Mr Roten claimed his father's health deteriorated in the home, but improved after the man returned home.
From the witness stand Tuesday, Mr. Roten told jurors that the indictments against him were invalid and part of a “plot to disregard the truth” about his father's custody case.
“These are all trumped-up charges. The lawyers, judges, prosecutors, police don't want to be held accountable for crimes they are committing against private citizens,” he told jurors, before Judge Elliot interrupted him.
Asked whether he had any more witnesses on his behalf, Mr. Roten raised his tattered Bible in the air. “The Lord is my witness,” he told the judge.
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