Joos convicted of '94 weapons, arrest charges

By Jim Burrows
Daily News staff writer

PINEVILLE -- "He does not believe he is subject to the law like the rest of us. He wants to interpret the law as it suits him, again, like a child," said Bob Ahsens of self-appointed Nazarite pastor Robert Neil Joos Jr.

Joos was convicted by a McDonald County jury of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest June 29, 1994.

The two-day trial concluded Thursday night with the jury of seven women and five men deliberating less than an hour.

Thirty-eighth Circuit Judge David Darnold, who was assigned to preside at trial, set a hearing on motions for a new trial and/or formal sentencing for the afternoon of Friday, April 4.

Joos remains jailed until that time. He has been incarcerated since his arrest by the highway patrol in 1994.

Ahsens, an assistant attorney general, prosecuted for the state. He was assisted by a second assistant attorney general, David Brown.

Until last August Joos had acted as his own attorney. He accepted the services of Anne Laswell, a special public defender, and Marc Edmondson, also a public defender.

Ahsens said Joos lied on the witness stand when he said he didn't recognize the highway patrolmen, who were in uniform, when they first stopped his church van. He said Joos acted like a child, covering his ears in a "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" fashion when he fought with Sgt. Steve Dorsey and the late Cpl. Bobbie Harper.

Ahsens challenged the jury to decide if the law applies to everyone, including Joos. The jury decided it did.

Laswell said the office had made a plan to "pounce on Robert (Joos)."

"He may not have been respectful to the officers, but that is not resisting arrest," she said.

Joos, 44, is the founder of the so-called Sacerdotal Order of the David church. The church property, which Ahsens called a farmstead, is located east of Cyclone.

In 1985 Joos was charged with simulating legal process when he attempted to serve a bogus federal injunction on retired trooper Merle Graham to prevent the arrest of Taren Wood, a Joos associate. The following year a McDonald County jury found Joos guilty of the misdemeanor and he was sentenced to six months in the county jail, plus a $400 fine.

Joos appealed the jury verdict. That verdict was upheld by the appellate court, which issued a warrant for Joos' arrest in 1987.

Joos remained a fugitive.

April 27, 1994, the appellate court issued a mandate for Joos' arrest.

Sgt. Miles Parks, of the highway patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control, said one attempt was made to arrest Joos June 10 but that attempt failed.

He said Joos was arrested on the second attempt, June 29. He said he and Sgt. Mike Rogers were conducting surveillance on the Joos property and notified Sgt. Dorsey and Cpl. Harper by radio when Joos left the property in a blue Chevy van carrying New Mexico license plates.

Parks said the farm house on the Joos property was at the end of a mile-long private drive.

He said the officers had been warned Joos might resist arrest by fleeing and may be armed and dangerous.

Dorsey said he and Harper was stationed on the county road to each side of the drive leading to the Joos property. He said when Joos drove onto the county road he and Harper blocked his path from the front and back with their patrol cars.

Dorsey said Joos resisted arrest.

Harper died in April of complications during heart surgery. His preliminary hearing testimony was read to the jury.

Harper also said Joos resisted arrest.

Joos, testifying on his own behalf, said both officers were lying.

He said he didn't know who the men were and refused to get out of his van when ordered to do so. He said, when the officers pulled in front and behind him, they drew their weapons and pointed them at him.

"I was feeling I was a dead man," Joos said. "I was scared and I was injured. I was just trying to protect myself," he said.

He said he refused to get out of his van because that would allow the officers "to get a clean shot at me."

"They are lying, yes," Joos told Ahsens.

"What right does some cop (have) to come out and tell me to get out of the van," he said.

"I never resisted them at all. Never."

Photographs taken of Dorsey and Harper the morning of Joos' arrest showed Dorsey had a skinned elbow, knee, and ankle. And there was a clear foot print on Harper's trousers on the left thigh, below the groin.

Parks said an inventory was made of the contents of Joos' van. He said the items found included military survival equipment, Texas and Colorado truck licenses and a Clerke "Saturday Night Special," .32-caliber, five-shot revolver which was loaded and concealed in an opaque plastic bag.

That pistol was found between the van's front seats.

Joos said the pistol was one of those which belonged to the church. He said several people had access to the van and he didn't know the pistol was there.

But, in cross examination by Ahsens, Joos admitted it was a tenant of Joos' church that he always travel armed.

"Do people who come into your church commonly carry guns," Ahsens asked Joos. "Yes," Joos said.

"Christ said, carry a sword even if you have to sell your cloak to so, but that's not a sword," Joos said, pointing to the revolver.

"Do you have a sword," Ahsens asked.

"Sure," Joos replied.

Neosho Daily News

Page 1, Friday, March 28, 1997


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