Joos convicted of '94 weapons, arrest charges
By Jim Burrows
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 NewsPage 1, Friday, March 28, 1997
|
Back to The Robert Joos Index or
Patrick Henry On-Line?