FBI traces members of abortion murder suspect’s study group

Wednesday, Sep 23, 2009

Posted on Sun, Aug. 30, 2009

By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

They met in one another’s homes on Saturdays, their Sabbath, for potluck dinners and scripture study sessions.

Among the topics: The Old Testament, their Hebrew roots and the “secret societies” attempting to control government and culture.

Among the members: Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

As the investigation continues into whether Roeder acted alone in Tiller’s May 31 death, members of the study group have found themselves in the spotlight, showing up on the witness list for the prosecution and being interviewed by the FBI.

Even a rabbi at an Overland Park congregation of Messianic Jews has been questioned, although Roeder’s group broke away after some members were asked to leave the synagogue.

“People are trying to make something out of nothing,” said Michael Clayman, an attorney who was host for the group for a time in his Merriam home.

“It was like any other Bible study around town. It was a bunch of guys having spaghetti and meatballs, talking about philosophy. It wasn’t a bunch of Jim Jones people meeting or drinking Kool-Aid or plotting things. No cult, no nothing.”

The group does help explain the foundation of some of Roeder’s beliefs, which included distrust of government and opposition to abortion.

Those attending the study group describe themselves as Messianic Jews who, unlike mainstream Jews, believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Some people who call themselves Messianic Jews, such as Roeder, are not Jewish.

Messianic Jews observe many Jewish customs, including dietary laws and holidays.

In a recent interview, Roeder said he “had become a believer” around 1992.

“I converted, born again to Christianity,” he said. “I guess you could say Messianic, or turned to Jesus, Yeshua, as my Savior.” He said Messianic believers such as himself had gone “back to our Hebrew roots.”

Roeder said he preferred going to a study group instead of a more formal religious setting because “organized religion is 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations, which are businesses.”

“We stay away from them,” he said, adding that religious organizations receiving tax-exempt status become corrupt because they are beholden to the government.

Roeder and other members of the Bible study used to attend the Or HaOlam Messianic Congregation in Overland Park but split off, some said, because the leaders did not want to hear their talk about Freemasons and other “secret societies.”

They also didn’t approve of Or HaOlam being registered as a nonprofit corporation with the state of Kansas.

Rabbi Shmuel Wolkenfeld of the Or HaOlam congregation confirmed that Roeder and the others left over disagreements. Wolkenfeld said he hadn’t seen them for several years.

“We had such divisive conversations with them,” he said. “Scott became displeased with us because we were an incorporated Kansas charity.”

He said the group also espoused conspiracy theories — including an assertion that Prince Charles is the Antichrist — and that eventually, he and the elders had to “uninvite” two of Roeder’s friends.

“With Scott, we had a bunch of discussions, then he just disappeared,” he said. “I wish we could have helped him, but he had his own opinions.”

Wolkenfeld said the congregation was shocked by Tiller’s slaying.

“Our congregation is certainly pro-life,” he said. “So for something like that to happen is abhorrent. All it does is bring disgrace on the whole cause.”

Wolkenfeld said two Wichita police detectives paid him a visit after Tiller’s murder to ask about Roeder.

“What they said was they knew we had a history with him and they were looking for any possible lead,” he said.

After leaving Or HaOlam, the group began meeting on Saturday afternoons, first at Clayman’s house and most recently at an apartment in Westport that Roeder shared with another man.

The man asked not to be identified because he fears losing his job, saying he already had lost a new roommate who discovered the man’s ties to Roeder.

The man said the study group was suspended after Roeder’s arrest.

He said he last saw Roeder the day before Tiller was killed. Roeder told him that he was going to visit his family in Topeka and didn’t come home that night. The next day, he said, the FBI knocked on his door at 4:15 p.m. and started asking questions.

Agents took his home computer and laptop and also Roeder’s computer, he said, along with some Hebrew teaching tapes. He said he’s met with FBI agents five times since Tiller’s death.

Tim Parks, who was Roeder’s roommate for five years before Roeder lived with Clayman, said he attended some of the study group’s meetings. He said, however, that “I disagreed with a lot of that stuff.” Some of the beliefs, he said, were “kind of off the wall.”

“To me, it’s PFA theology,” he said. “Plucked from air.”

Parks said he isn’t convinced that Roeder killed Tiller.

“A bunch of us think he is being framed,” said Parks, who also has been interviewed by the FBI. “To me, the entire judicial system is suspect.”

Clayman said he met Roeder about two years ago while attending a different study group. He said Roeder lived with him for 11 months but moved out April 1 because he’d lost his job and wasn’t paying his rent.

Clayman said Roeder took the abortion issue to the extreme.

“Scott believed that the Bible was literal, the word of God,” he said. “Where he went astray was he had this crazy, fanatic doctrine that you could somehow justify killing somebody just because they were an abortion doctor.”

Clayman said Roeder talked often about his belief that killing an abortion doctor was an act of justifiable homicide.

“When he brought up that in theory — but he never did threaten anybody when I was around — I said, ‘How can you repay evil with evil?’ ” he said.

Clayman said investigators won’t find any conspiracy behind Tiller’s killing, especially among the members of the study group.

“A Bible study is studying the Bible,” he said. “We’d read from the Bible and say, ‘What do you think about that?’ Then we’d discuss it. We didn’t sit around and have sacrifices in the backyard.”

As for Roeder, Clayman said, “He’s going to be tried, and he’s going to try and do a dog-and-pony show in front of the media. He wants to tell the whole world. He’s a martyr, see? That’s what he wanted to be.”

To reach Judy L. Thomas, call 816-234-4334 or send e-mail to jthomas@kcstar.com.

© 2009 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com

Justifiable homicide defense eyed in Roeder's case

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer Roxana Hegeman, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 29, 3:15 pm ET

WICHITA, Kan. – The suspect in the killing of abortion provider George Tiller is in talks with a prominent attorney who represents anti-abortion protesters and has long advocated justifiable homicide as a legal defense in such cases.

Scott Roeder, 51, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller in the foyer of his Wichita church. The Kansas City, Mo., man has refused to discuss his case, but he has told The Associated Press that Tiller's killing was justified to save "the lives of unborn children."

Roeder has court-appointed defense attorneys, but he apparently has now turned to Michael Hirsh, the lawyer who represented Paul Hill on appeal for killing a Florida abortion provider and his bodyguard in 1994. Hill was executed in 2003 after the Florida Supreme Court rejected Hirsh's argument that the judge should have allowed Hill to present to jurors his claim that the killings were justified to prevent abortions.

Hirsh confirmed he has spoken once to Roeder in recent weeks about representing him, but he has not yet been retained. Hirsh said he had not researched the facts of the case or Kansas law enough to know whether the justifiable homicide defense could be used but said a jury should be allowed to decide if it is applicable.

Roeder's trial is scheduled for Sept. 21, though public defender Mark Rudy said he anticipates filing for a continuance.

Rudy declined to comment on Hirsh's possible role in the case. Roeder did not respond to a letter from the AP seeking comment.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in denying Hill's appeal that his motivation would not change the outcome of the case. "As a practical matter, permitting a defendant to vindicate his or her criminal activity in this manner would be an invitation for lawlessness," the justices wrote.

But Hirsh discounted the suggestion that if a jury acquitted Roeder of murder based on such a defense, it would lead to an open season on abortion doctors.

"It has been open season on unborn children for over 30 years. I think on abortionists there will be a bag limit," Hirsh said in a phone interview this week from his Kennesaw, Ga., office.

He previously represented anti-abortion activist Regina Dinwiddie of Kansas City, Mo., who was among the first protesters targeted in 1995 under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act. Dinwiddie was barred from going within 500 feet of a clinic.

The principle of self-defense and the defense of another has been recognized for centuries, Hirsh said. But he acknowledged its use in abortion-related cases has been stifled, saying that in Hill's case, the prosecutor and judge made sure jurors wouldn't hear it.

"We don't know if it would have prevailed or not and they were scared out of their mind, and you could see it, that it might have," Hirsh said. "And so it's not fair to say it never worked. Well, it hasn't been tried, either."

Richard Levy, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said such defenses can work, but not necessarily in the context of abortion. The law requires that the threat be imminent, the force reasonable in response and the activity involved unlawful.

Any claim that killing an abortion provider is justifiable likely would fail, he said.

"In particular in the circumstances of the murder of Dr. Tiller there is an imminence problem, there is no imminent threat and, more fundamentally, the activities he was engaged in were legal," Levy said.

The question is whether a judge would allow jurors to consider that defense.

Wichita attorney E. Jay Greeno, who defended Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon for shooting Tiller in both arms in 1993, said the judge repeatedly shut her down when she tried to testify about abortions the doctor performed.

Procedurally, the judge in Roeder's case would likely hold a pretrial hearing on whether Roeder's attorneys could raise that defense at trial.

"There might be some hope that there would be jury nullification — the jury would vote to acquit — if there were right-to-life advocates within the jury who accepted the argument that an unborn child is a human being and that abortion is murder and therefore the murder of a physician who performs abortion is also justifiable," Levy said.

Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist in Des Moines, Iowa, who in 1996 reprinted the Army of God manual that lists ways to damage abortion clinics, recently wrote a legal brief for Roeder's case on the "necessity defense." He argued that had the alleged shooter not acted, the killing of hundreds of babies every week would have continued. He sent it to Roeder's public defenders, but they have not responded.

Rudy acknowledged that Roeder's attorneys have received several suggested defense strategies, adding that they have given them the "appropriate due response."

Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Suspect in Abortion Doctor Murder Eyes Justifiable Homicide Defense

Suspect in Abortion Doctor Murder Eyes Justifiable Homicide Defense

Saturday , August 29, 2009

WICHITA, Kan. —

The suspect in the killing of abortion provider George Tiller is in talks with a prominent attorney who represents anti-abortion protesters and has long advocated justifiable homicide as a legal defense in such cases.

Scott Roeder, 51, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in the May 31 shooting death of Tiller in the foyer of his Wichita church. The Kansas City, Mo., man has refused to discuss his case, but he has told The Associated Press that Tiller's killing was justified to save "the lives of unborn children."

Click here for photos.

Roeder has court-appointed defense attorneys, but he apparently has now turned to Michael Hirsh, the lawyer who represented Paul Hill on appeal for killing a Florida abortion provider and his bodyguard in 1994. Hill was executed in 2003 after the Florida Supreme Court rejected Hirsh's argument that the judge should have allowed Hill to present to jurors his claim that the killings were justified to prevent abortions.

Hirsh confirmed he has spoken once to Roeder in recent weeks about representing him, but he has not yet been retained. Hirsh said he had not researched the facts of the case or Kansas law enough to know whether the justifiable homicide defense could be used but said a jury should be allowed to decide if it is applicable.

Roeder's trial is scheduled for Sept. 21, though public defender Mark Rudy said he anticipates filing for a continuance.

Rudy declined to comment on Hirsh's possible role in the case. Roeder did not respond to a letter from the AP seeking comment.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in denying Hill's appeal that his motivation would not change the outcome of the case. "As a practical matter, permitting a defendant to vindicate his or her criminal activity in this manner would be an invitation for lawlessness," the justices wrote.

But Hirsh discounted the suggestion that if a jury acquitted Roeder of murder based on such a defense, it would lead to an open season on abortion doctors.

"It has been open season on unborn children for over 30 years. I think on abortionists there will be a bag limit," Hirsh said in a phone interview this week from his Kennesaw, Ga., office.

He previously represented anti-abortion activist Regina Dinwiddie of Kansas City, Mo., who was among the first protesters targeted in 1995 under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act. Dinwiddie was barred from going within 500 feet of a clinic.

The principle of self-defense and the defense of another has been recognized for centuries, Hirsh said. But he acknowledged its use in abortion-related cases has been stifled, saying that in Hill's case, the prosecutor and judge made sure jurors wouldn't hear it.

"We don't know if it would have prevailed or not and they were scared out of their mind, and you could see it, that it might have," Hirsh said. "And so it's not fair to say it never worked. Well, it hasn't been tried, either."

Richard Levy, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said such defenses can work, but not necessarily in the context of abortion. The law requires that the threat be imminent, the force reasonable in response and the activity involved unlawful.

Any claim that killing an abortion provider is justifiable likely would fail, he said.

"In particular in the circumstances of the murder of Dr. Tiller there is an imminence problem, there is no imminent threat and, more fundamentally, the activities he was engaged in were legal," Levy said.

The question is whether a judge would allow jurors to consider that defense.

Wichita attorney E. Jay Greeno, who defended Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon for shooting Tiller in both arms in 1993, said the judge repeatedly shut her down when she tried to testify about abortions the doctor performed.

Procedurally, the judge in Roeder's case would likely hold a pretrial hearing on whether Roeder's attorneys could raise that defense at trial.

"There might be some hope that there would be jury nullification — the jury would vote to acquit — if there were right-to-life advocates within the jury who accepted the argument that an unborn child is a human being and that abortion is murder and therefore the murder of a physician who performs abortion is also justifiable," Levy said.

Dave Leach, an anti-abortion activist in Des Moines, Iowa, who in 1996 reprinted the Army of God manual that lists ways to damage abortion clinics, recently wrote a legal brief for Roeder's case on the "necessity defense." He argued that had the alleged shooter not acted, the killing of hundreds of babies every week would have continued. He sent it to Roeder's public defenders, but they have not responded.

Rudy acknowledged that Roeder's attorneys have received several suggested defense strategies, adding that they have given them the "appropriate due response."

In Cold Blog: "Thou Shalt Not Kill"

In Cold Blog: "Thou Shalt Not Kill"

Posted using ShareThis

By Stephen Singular

I’ve been spending time in prisons lately speaking with murderers in Colorado and Kansas, which raises fundamental questions for me as a journalist. What’s the job of a reporter in this situation -- to challenge the false or outlandish things a killer is saying or simply let him or her talk? “In Cold Blog” obviously gets its name from the gold standard of all true crime writing, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and I’ve often thought about Capote having a full five years to sit in a cell with Dick Hickock and Perry Smith before they were executed in 1965. Capote spent most of his time with Smith, the actual killer of the four members of the Clutter family, and the impression we have decades later is that not only didn’t he judge Smith, but grew quite fond of the man over time. One criticism of In Cold Blood was that Capote was too sympathetic to someone who’d slaughtered four innocent people.

When I’m in prison with inmates who’ve done the worst possible things, I find that I’m not judgmental, either. I usually feel empathy toward them and never walk out of a jail without thinking that but for the grace of God, there go I. This does not alter my view of their guilt or that they should be incarcerated, perhaps for life. Sometimes, my feelings in this arena bother me and I’m haunted for days after I’ve left inmates behind in their cells. I’ve also had trouble breathing after exiting some prisons, as if I’ve been standing too close to evil or being too accepting of it. I’ve never known how to reconcile all this inside myself, but I do know one thing: I can’t change my visceral and emotional response to being around killers.

Over time, I’ve decided that these feelings have something to do with being a writer and the role we assign ourselves, for better or worse, as members of society. We have lawyers, judges, and courtrooms to determine the guilt or innocence of those arrested for crimes (by and large, I think our system of due process, for all its shortcomings and tediousness, is the best in the world). We have prison chaplains and other religious functionaries to offer inmates forgiveness or salvation, if that’s what they’re looking for. We have psychiatrists to decide it those behind bars are legally sane or not. But we don’t have anyone inside the criminal justice industry who’s primarily interested in why tragedies happen or what might be learned about the nature of human violence. That’s what I go into prisons looking for and that’s why I let the killers talk and talk without much interruption, even if I know some of what they’re saying isn’t true: I want to know more about now they think and feel (or can’t feel), and why they’ve done what they’ve done.

Having visited prisons for the past 25 years, I’ve been repeatedly struck by how there seems to be little or no correlation between intelligence and brutal behavior. Very bright and articulate people do horrific things and then rationalize their actions with clouds of elaborate language. I’m always most unsettled by encountering truly smart criminals who have no compunction about taking other lives. There’s an entire school of thought today that says criminal behavior is the result of bad genes and chemical imbalances in the brain. I’d like to believe this because it might make humans more predictable, but I have some doubts. I’ve come to believe that the underlying reality of much of the violence I’ve observed or written about is grounded in emotional processes we still understand very little about. Why do people stop feeling? Why can they snuff out a stranger, but feel deeply about their children or a pet? We’re going to be exploring and uncovering emotional mysteries here for decades and centuries to come, just as scientists are doing with physical matter.

I recently spoke with a man who’d gunned down another man and the unmistakable feeling the killer conveyed was that he was greatly relieved to have committed the murder. This was the only way he’d seen to lessen his anxiety, when he had a thousand other alternatives. Crime teaches me that we are still in the primitive stages of human development.

Stephen Singular is the author of nineteen books which range in topics from high-profile crimes and social criticisms, to business and sports biographies. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado. You can find out more about this author by visiting his website at stephensingular.com

© Copyright In Cold Blog

Documents: Scott Roeder’s letter from jail

Two weeks after the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Lindsay Roeder received this letter from her ex-husband Scott Roeder in jail.

Documents: Scott Roeder’s letter from jail

Original handwritten letter

Lindsay,

I heard bits and pieces from second hand sources about your interview on the news. Do you care to share what took place during that interview? If you’re willing to share with the world your views, and since I didn’t see it myself, would you mind telling me what you told them? Although, my guess is that I’ll never hear back from you because that would keep in character with being the grown up spoiled brat that you are. You exhibit the same character the hundreds of times you’ve hung up on me when talking on the phone, in the past.

But my true concern is with our son, Nicholas. I’m afraid he’s becoming or already became a spoiled brat, such as yourself. I thought that at least when we were still married we were (at least I) was teaching him the basic things in life LIKE SAYING THANK YOU. Nicholas in the best of my recollection, has never thanked me for taking him out to eat, to a movie, or giving him money. Whenever I drop him off at home, he just says goodbye and I’ll see you again. I gave him a fairly decent knife the other day and he did not thank me. When my friend Jared had him work on his computer, after Jared paid Nicholas, Nicholas didn’t thank him. These are typical signs of being a spoiled brat and it makes me cringe when I think he’s 22 years old now and getting set in his ways. You have had him most of his life and he is just following the teaching you have given him. Another example of you being a spoiled brat was after we…we were married, weeks later I found out you had not sent out any thank you notes for the gifts received at our wedding.

I dropped the ball on sending them out but only learning that you had not sent one thank you note to any of our guests.

On a much deeper note, the fact that you are housing Nicholas and not encouraging him to work is teaching Nick absolutely no work ethic. I’m sorry to say but it looks like you’ve done a very poor job of raising Nicholas after our divorce.

I would be glad to hear your response.
Scott.

P.S. Also, please read the enclosed material and let Nick read it, also.
If you’re an adult, you’ll respond. if you’re a spoiled brat, you won’t.
Ask Nick to respond, also.

YouTube - Roeder Pleads Not Guilty in Abortion Doc Killing

Letters reveal evolving beliefs of man charged with killing George Tiller

Letters reveal evolving beliefs of man charged with killing George Tiller

Letters reveal evolving beliefs of man charged with killing George Tiller

Posted: 07/28/2009 7:16 AM

More Front Page >>
Next >>

In a series of letters, the man accused of killing a Wichita abortion doctor attempts to convince his young son that a heathen government must be resisted.

While some of the letters Scott Roeder wrote from 1996 to 2002 begin unremarkably, with praise for his son’s good grades and musical performances, they go on to reveal his evolving beliefs.

They paint a portrait of a man whose religious, political and anti-abortion views were becoming more extreme — insisting, for example, that Jesus be called “Yahshua” and that Christmas shouldn’t be celebrated. The income tax is ungodly, Roeder instructs, and in a letter on his son’s 13th birthday, Roeder defends his failure to pay child support.

Roeder, of Kansas City, is scheduled today for a preliminary hearing on charges that he murdered abortion provider George Tiller, who was shot on May 31 while ushering in his church.

The handwritten letters were provided to The Kansas City Star by Roeder’s ex-wife, Lindsey. The couple divorced in 1996. Their son, Nicholas, is now 22.

“These letters show a person totally different than the person I married,” Lindsey Roeder told The Star. “When they would arrive in the mail, I would read bits and pieces to Nicholas. I would say, ‘You got a letter from Daddy. He loves you.’ ”

Nicholas approved of releasing the letters, she said, but did not want to talk about them.

“He was shocked when he recently read the full letters,” she said. “He still hasn’t read them all yet.”

The return addresses indicate Roeder moved around frequently between Topeka and the Kansas City area. Some letters were written when he was in custody in Shawnee County on explosives charges, and others were sent from the El Dorado Correctional Facility, where he served time for violating his probation.

Roeder was arrested in Topeka in April 1996 after Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. A search of the car found explosives and ammunition. Roeder was found guilty and sentenced in June 1996 to 24 months of probation with intensive supervision, but the conviction was later overturned after a court ruled that authorities had conducted an illegal search of his car.

Roeder wrote to his son on May 3, 1996, three weeks after his arrest.

“Well, I guess you heard I was stopped for having a different kind of license plate that the government doesn’t recognize,” he wrote to Nicholas, who was 9 years old at the time. “It was perfectly legal, but they don’t understand it. I’m in jail in Topeka right now, but that doesn’t mean I’ve done anything wrong.”

Roeder told his son that he believed it was “in God’s purpose for me to be here right now.”

“Romans 8:28 says ‘All things happen for the good to those that love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose,’ ” he wrote. “Sometimes we can’t see what God’s purpose is in our circumstances, or situations, but we just have to trust the Lord it is for the best.”

Roeder wrote Nicholas again from jail on May 22, 1996, telling him that “I think when you get older that you’ll understand why these things are happening to your Daddy.”

Roeder often began the letters to his son with praise and talk of how much he missed him.

In a June 3, 1996, letter from jail, Roeder congratulated him for getting almost all A’s in school and noted that he had started a new Bible lesson through the mail, adding, “I’m learning very much.”

On June 20, 1996, Roeder wrote Nicholas again from jail.

“I know this time has been confusing for you and you don’t understand why I had explosives in my car,” he said. “The one thing I want you to know is that I never meant to hurt anyone. … I absolutely, positively want you to know I could never hurt anyone.”

In an April 5, 1997, letter, Roeder said he hoped Nicholas was enjoying going to church.

“I know it seems like I talk about God a lot when I come visit you, but I want you to know the joy there is when we have Jesus for our Savior!” he said.

Most of the four-page letter was about how Jesus died for everyone’s sins and how people should repent and ask God to forgive them.

On Oct. 22, 1997, Roeder wrote his son from the El Dorado Correctional Facility. This time he talked about Halloween, calling it “a high holiday for the devil.”

“There are many things you could do on Halloween night, instead of trick or treating,” he said. “Actually, one of the best things you could do to please our Savior, would be to stay home and have a Bible study with Mom and PoPo (Nicholas’ grandfather).”

He also talked about “heathen nations,” which he described as “those who did not believe in YAHWEH (God the Father, this is His personal, sacred Name) and YAHSHUA (God the Son, whose Name has been erroneously translated Jesus).”

Roeder wrote his longest letter, 13 pages, to his son on Nov. 17, 1997, from the El Dorado Correctional Facility, describing “why I allowed the system to send me to prison.”

“About five years ago I saw an advertisement in the Kansas City newspaper inviting people to a meeting to learn how to not pay federal and state income taxes, legally,” he wrote. “Ever since that time, after going to that meeting, I’ve been learning about taxation, and the laws concerning it.”

Roeder said that in 1991, “Yahshua (Jesus) was working, in my life, to bring me to a point of knowing that I was a sinner and needed a Savior.” In August of that year, he said, he prayed for Yahshua to forgive his sins and come into his life. Since that time, he said, “His Holy Spirit has been guiding and leading me into certain things that I had not realized before.”

One of those things, he wrote, concerned the “deception” about income taxes. He told his son that the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed Congress to tax the incomes of Americans, was not properly ratified. He added that “income tax itself is part of an overall system of government called communism.”

“Slowly and surely, through lies and deception, our country has been turned from a government which upheld godly principles of truth and justice, to an ungodly system of socialism and communism, which denies the existence of Yahweh and His Son Yahshua, allows the murder of unborn babies in their mothers wombs, and is completely opposite of the type of government the Bible teaches.”

The government today, he said, “protects the evildoers (those who murder unborn babies, among other wicked acts) and punishes those who protest abortion by picketing in front of abortion clinics. The good are punished for trying to stop this murder from taking place, and the abortion doctors are protected by law to continue their evil.”

He said the government was being run according to unbiblical standards:

“And whenever a Christian, is shown by the Holy Spirit, what is true and rightous, that Christian must decide to stand for what is right, no matter what the cost!”

On Dec. 20, 1998, Roeder wrote Nicholas from Topeka.

“I wanted to let you know that I have the same beliefs about the observance of Christmas, that I had last year. … The bible has no commands that tell us to observe the birth of our Savior. The Passover is for observing His death, but nothing is said about observing His birth. Dec. 25th is tied to the worship of many false elohim (gods) and we’re told not to have any elohim before Him.”

On Jan. 25, 1999, Roeder wrote to his ex-wife from Topeka to let her know he had a job offer in Kansas City and would be moving there on Feb. 1.

“I’m remaining anonymous as to where I’m working, and what type of work it is because of my politically incorrect views,” he said. “If the state wants to find me because of my views on taxation, I don’t want to give them any help.”

On July 7, 1999, Roeder wrote Nicholas from an address in Merriam to ask whether he was still going to church.

“I hope you have accepted our Savior as your personal Lord and Savior,” he said.

Then he talked about child support payments.

“I hope you’re not mad at me for not making child support payments,” he wrote. “I’m not making payments not because I don’t love you, but because I have done a lot of study and realize that I shouldn’t be making payments until Mom is willing to accept me back after our divorce.”

Last month, Lindsey Roeder received another letter from her ex-husband. Written June 12 at the Sedgwick County Jail, the letter complained about the way she was raising Nicholas.

“I’m afraid he’s becoming or already become a spoiled brat, such as yourself,” Roeder wrote. “I thought that at least when we were still married we were (at least I) was teaching him the basic things in life like saying thank you.”

Lindsey Roeder described the letter as “mean and hateful and accusatory.”

Scott Roeder Preliminary Hearing partial text

Scott Roeder Preliminary Hearing

9:22	We're waiting for Scott Roeder's preliminary hearing to begin. Roeder and his defense attorney are not in the courtroom yet, but prosecutors and several law enforcement officers are in the courtroom preparing for the hearing.

9:28

I just talked with Kim Parker, one of the prosecutors and Chief Deputy District Attorney for Sedgwick County. Parker tells me the gameplan for the morning is to try and get through five witnesses. Three of those will be witnesses from the church where Dr. Tiller was shot. Prosecutors also plan to call a coroner from the Sedgwick County Regional Forensics Center, Dr. Jaime Oeberst, and the head of the Wichita Police Department's Homicide Unit, Lt. Ken Landwehr.

9:31

Parker says the three witnesses from Dr. Tiller's church have asked their faces not be recorded or broadcast, though we'll be able to hear their testimony through our live video feed. While these witnesses are on the stand, you'll probably see a picture of Roeder or the prosecutor questioning the witness. One of the witnesses from the church will be Gary Hoepner. He actually saw the shot that killed Dr. Tiller. Hoepner did an interview with Eyewitness News yesterday.

9:32	Court is beginning.

9:34

Gary Hoepner is the first witness to take the stand. Hoepner told me yesterday that in all honesty, he's extremely nervous about testifying today. Hoepner says the last two months have been extremely emotional for him. He couldn't sleep for awhile after seeing Dr. Tiller shot, and he kept reliving the shooting.

9:37	Parker is showing pictures of Reformation Lutheran Church from the front and aerial views. Hoepner was an usher with Dr. Tiller when he was shot and says he attends almost every Sunday. He says he'd known Dr. Tiller for several years.

9:41

I've been asked a few times if the abortion issue would come up today. It's very unlikely. Prosecutors tell me today's testimony will focus on the basics of the crime and won't go off on tangents into abortion. I get the impression prosecutors don't want the abortion issue to ever be a part of the case, here at the prelim or otherwise.

9:44

Parker is questioning Hoepner. She points out the spot in aerial photographs where Hoepner parked his truck the day Dr. Tiller was shot. This is important because Hoepner was one of the men who chased Roeder from the church and tried to follow him. Hoepner says he was also the one who got a license plate number for Roeder's car and called 911.

9:46	Parker is showing Hoepner pictures from inside the church. Hoepner says when the shooting happened, the doors to the church had only just been shut and processional at the beginning of the church service was just starting.

9:49	Hoepner says he and Dr. Tiller were standing next to a welcome table in the foyer of the church. The table had some donuts on it, and the two were making small talk.

9:50	Hoepner says a door to the church opened and he recognized Roeder as a man who'd been at the church the Sunday before. Hoepner says Roeder had stepped out of the sanctuary to use the restroom the Sunday before, so he didn't think anything of this.

9:51	Hoepner says Roeder walked up to Dr. Tiller, put a gun to his head, and shot Tiller. Hoepner says he heard a pop. "I almost thought it might be a cap gun, but then George fell," says Hoepner, "and I thought, 'Oh my God!'"

9:52	"It just happened so fast, I don't know if I actually saw him squeeze the trigger," says Hoepner. "I saw him put the gun up to (Tiller's) head, though."

9:54	Parker asks about details of the shooting and the shooter. Hoepner again says he recognized the man from attending the previous Sunday's service. When Parker asks if Hoepner sees the man who shot Dr. Tiller in the courtroom today, Hoepner indicates Roeder.

9:57	Hoepner says he actually had his head down when Roeder came out of the sanctuary. Again, Hoepner says he didn't think anything of this because the previous Sunday, Roeder had done the same thing to use the restroom. "I looked up just in time to see him raise the gun to George's head," says Hoepner.

10:00

Hoepner says at one point on a previous Sunday, Roeder had left a note in the church's offering plate. Dr. Tiller didn't attend church that day.

10:04

Hoepner says Roeder immediately left the church, and he followed Roeder out. Hoepner says Roeder turned around and yelled, "I've got a gun, and I'll shoot you." Hoepner says he immediately stopped, but Roeder continued on. Hoepner says he then kept following Roeder at a distance and tried to get to his truck because that's where he'd left his cell phone.

10:06

Hoepner says Roeder never actually turned to point his gun at him. He says Roeder was running and yelled over his shoulder, "I've got a gun, and I'll shoot you."

10:09

Hoepner told me yesterday he's second-guessed himself over and over again since Dr. Tiller's murder. Hoepner told me he and Tiller were standing on opposite sides of the welcome table that had donuts on it. He says after the shooting, he kept thinking if he'd just done something like shoving the table to knock Tiller over, maybe that would have given them some time or distracted Roeder. Hoepner says he knows now there was nothing he could do to save Tiller.

10:20

Hoepner says Roeder twice said, "I've got a gun, and I'll shoot you." Hoepner says Roeder yelled that once at himself and another time at a second churchgoer.

10:24

Hoepner says when he got to his truck and his cell phone, he called 911. He saw the other churchgoer who'd chased Roeder throw a cup of coffe at the car Roeder was in. Hoepner says as Roeder's car drove away, he yelled, "Somebody get the tag number! Somebody get the tag number!" Hoepner says someone yelled back what was on Roeder's license plate, and he relayed that to the 911 dispatcher.

10:34

Direct examination of Gary Hoepner is finished. Roeder's defense attorney, Steve Osburn, is starting cross examination.

10:46

Osburn is going over the previous times Hoepner had seen Roeder at the church. They go over the previous Sunday when Roeder left the sanctuary to use the restroom. He also talks about Sundays when Roeder had left notes in the offering plate. Hoepner doesn't know specifically what was in the notes. Hoepner says he recognized Roeder mostly because he wasn't a regular member of Sunday services. After so many years attending Reformation Lutheran Church, he says he noticed new faces.

10:51

Osburn asks Hoepner if he agrees that much of this morning's testimony has been assumptions. As an example, Osburn uses the coffee another churchgoer through at Roeder's car. Hoepner says he doesn't know for sure what was in the churchgoer's cup was coffee, but that's what that man always drank on Sundays.

10:55

Hoepner is off the witness stand. We're into the morning recess. Court will be back in session at 11:10.

10:56

[Standby] Court is into the morning recess. Court will be back in session at 11:10.

11:13

Court is back in session. This morning's second witness is Thornton Anderson. He's another member of Reformation Lutheran Church.

11:16

Anderson says he was about five minutes late to church on May 31, the Sunday Dr. Tiller was killed. Anderson is describing where he parked before walking to the church.

11:19

Anderson says as he walked toward the church, he saw three people running from the church. From a distance, he recognized one of the men as Gary Hoepner. "They were yelling, 'Get his license plate number!'" says Anderson.

11:25

Anderson says one of the men got into his car and drove toward him to get away from the church. He says the car came within 8-10 feet of him before turning onto a main road near the church. Anderson says the car was going so fast, he didn't get a good look at the driver. He did see the Kansas license plate 225 BAB and yelled it back to his fellow churchgoers.

11:30

Anderson says after he gave Hoepner the license plate, he was told Dr. Tiller had been shot by the fleeing suspect. Anderson says Hoepner told him he'd seen Roeder in the church three or four times. Anderson says he believes he'd seen Roeder in the church two or three times.

11:30

11:31

Above is a picture of Scott Roeder, left, talking with one of his attorneys this morning.

11:40

Prosecutor Ann Swegle is taking Anderson through the specifics of seeing the car that drove by him and the license plate. She also asks him about previous Sundays when Anderson thinks he saw Roeder in church.

11:43

11:43

Above is another picture of Roeder in the courtroom. These photos are courtesy of photographer Jamie Oppenheimer of the Wichita Eagle. Oppenheimer is the pool photographer for still images today.

11:44

Anderson is now being cross examined by defense attorney Steve Osburn. I'll have to step downstairs to give our noon report soon. Updates the rest of the morning until the lunch break will be sporadic.

11:53

Anderson's cross examination is finished. Court is in recess for the lunch break. Court will likely be back in session at 1:30.

12:05

[Standby] Court is into the lunch break.

1:35	Court is back in session. Keith Martin is the first witness of the afternoon. He was at Reformation Lutheran Church the morning Dr. Tiller was shot.

1:55	Keith Martin was serving as an usher the day Dr. Tiller was shot. He says he saw and talked to Tiller several times that morning.

2:06	Martin says he was in the church foyer when Dr. Tiller was shot. He was looking out a window when he heard a loud pop he thought might be a firecracker. When he turned around, he saw Tiller on the ground.

2:10	Martin says he saw Roeder run out the door of the foyer, so Martin ran through the fellowship hall to cut him off. Running to the door through the fellowship hall was a shorter route to get to the parking lot.

2:18

Martin says people often interrupted church services at Reformation Lutheran Church because Tiller was a member. Martin says they'd see someone who wasn't a regular member and was acting strange. The interruptions happened often enough ushers and other members of the church often had a feel whether someone was simply visiting the church or might make a disturbance.

2:21	Martin says he remembers seeing Roeder months before Tiller was killed. Martin says he noticed Roeder since he wasn't a regular member and remembered Roeder because he smelled horribly. Martin says it was a very pungent ammonia smell.

2:23	After Roeder ran out of the church, Martin says he continued chasing him yelling, "How could you do that?" Martin says Roeder continued running, but yelled back over his shoulder either, "Murderer!" or, "Killer!"...Martin can't remember which.

2:25

Martin says as he chased Roeder, he came within about 15 feet of Roeder's car. Martin was standing in front of Roeder's car trying to make sure Roeder couldn't leave. When Roeder reached his door, Martin says the two men simply stopped and looked at each other. Martin says Roeder pulled out his gun again and said, "Move." "I thought he could and would shoot me," Martin says, "so I got out of the way so he could drive off."

2:30	Martin says after he got out of the way of Roeder's car and the car drove by him, Martin threw the cup of coffee he was still holding at Roeder's driver side window. "Why did you do that?" asks Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston. "I don't know," says Martin. "Just a gesture."

2:39	Martin is being cross examined.

2:45

Martin is going back over the disruptions that have occurred at Reformation Lutheran Church. He says the worst he remembers is 12 years ago when a group of people came into the service and tried to take the whole service over. Martin says the group tried to take over the organ playing and shove the pastor away from the pulpit. Martin describes several other incidents, including a small group of teenagers coming into the sanctuary and trying to take communion away from the church's deacons.

2:57	Defense attorneys question whether Martin ever heard Roeder actually threaten to shoot him. Martin says Roeder first told him to move, but he didn't. Martin says Roeder then pulled out his gun and said, "I'll shoot you." "That's when I got out of the way," says Martin.

3:02	Martin is off the stand. The rest of the witnesses today are likely to be law enforcement or other investigators.

3:05	Court is in recess for an afternoon break. Court will be back in session at 3:20.

3:09	[Standby] Court will be back in session at 3:20.

3:22	Dr. Jaime Oeberst of the Sedgwick County Regional Forensics Science Center is the next witness on the stand. Dr. Oeberst is the doctor who performed the autopsy on Dr. Tiller's body.

3:24	Prosecutors tell me Dr. Oeberst is the next-to-last witness. Lt. Ken Landwehr, the head of Wichita PD's Homicide Unit, will be the last witness of Scott Roeder's preliminary hearing. Prosecutors still believe they'll be able to wrap up this hearing today.

3:28	Dr. Oeberst says Dr. Tiller didn't have an exit wound in his head, and she was able to retrieve the bullet that killed him. Dr. Oeberst says there was a black bruise at the entrance wound, which she says is typical.

3:30	Dr. Oeberst is asked if she made a determination on the cause of death for Dr. Tiller. She says, "Gunshot wound to the head." Defense attorneys say they have no questions for Dr. Oeberst, and she's off the stand after only 7-8 minutes of testimony.

3:30	Wichita Police Lt. Ken Landwehr is the next witness on the stand.

3:32

Lt. Landwehr says he was not on duty the Sunday Tiller was killed. Landwehr received a phone call that a homicide occurred that morning. Landwehr says he called the other lieutenant who was on call that weekend and two or three of his other homicide detectives before heading to Reformation Lutheran Church.

3:34	Lt. Landwehr and prosecutor Kim Parker are going through pictures of the church.

3:40

Lt. Landwehr is describing pictures of Dr. Tiller's body before it was removed from the church. The pictures are on a TV screen in the courtroom. The TV is pointed away from cameras and will not be shown in our live video feed or in any of our on-air reports. Lt. Landwehr says Dr. Tiller was laying on his left side, fully-clothed, with a single bullet wound to the head.

3:46	Lt. Landwehr says the license plate description was run through Teletype to check and see if police could ID the shooter. The tag came back to a Scott Roeder from Marion, Kansas.

3:49

Once Lt. Landwehr says police identified Scott Roeder as a suspect, they put out an alert to all nearby law enforcement on what car and what individual to be on the lookout for. A couple of hours after Dr. Tiller was shot, Lt. Landwehr says a detective with the Johnson County Sheriff's Office contacted WPD. Landwehr says the detective said he was following the car put out in the WPD description and asked what Landwehr wanted him to do. "I instructed him to pull over the vehicle and take the individual into custody," says Lt. Landwehr.

3:49	Lt. Landwehr is off the stand after defense attorneys decide not to cross examine him. The state rests.

3:50	In closing statements, Sedgwick County District Attorney argues Scott Roeder be bound over for trial on one count of first degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Foulston tells the judge the state has met its burden. Defense attorneys do not have a closing statement.

3:51	Judge Warren Wilbert agrees there's enough evidence to send Scott Roeder to trial on all charges.

3:52	Judge Wilbert moves on to arraignment. Steven Osburn enters a not guilty plea on Scott Roeder's behalf. Judge Wilbert sets a jury trial date for September 21st, though murder trials are often continued to later dates.

3:53	Court is in recess. Roeder's bond will remain at $20 million.