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Monday, October 27, 1997

Republic trials may signal end to turbulent times in secluded community

By EDUARDO MONTES Associated Press Writer

ALPINE, Texas (AP) - An end to years of turmoil may be near for the community that first endured separatist Richard McLaren's paper war, then hung on through actual gunplay.

The first group from McLaren's Republic of Texas will go on trial Monday. Residents say the proceedings may provide a measure of relief in the secluded Davis Mountains Resort, where the armed separatists held scores of lawmen at bay for a week last spring.

"You'd like it to be the last chapter in a real sad story. Hopefully, it will be," said Joe Rowe, who was taken hostage along with his wife in the incident that sparked the standoff. "From our standpoint out here, it probably would have been better if they had gone out in ziplock body bags."

Authorities say Republic followers were retaliating for the arrest of a group member on weapons charges April 27 when they shot their way into Rowe's house in the resort, a rural subdivision 175 miles southeast of El Paso.

By the time the siege ended May 3 with the group's surrender, 300 state troopers, Texas Rangers and other officers had descended on the area west of Fort Davis, where McLaren operated an "embassy" in a trailer and cabin.

Republic followers believe Texas was never legally annexed by the United States and remains an independent nation.

Group members McLaren, Gregg Paulson, his wife, Karen, and Robert Otto now face trial on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity for allegedly plotting to kidnap Rowe and his wife, Margaret Ann.

They could be sentenced to five to 99 years or life in prison and fined $10,000 if convicted of the first degree felony.

About 200 prospective jurors will be summoned Monday morning to the Brewster County Courthouse in Alpine, nearly 30 miles south of Fort Davis.

Court officials will also decide which of two groups to try first: McLaren and Otto, his chief lieutenant, or the Paulsons. The group not selected will go to court later, as will Richard Frank Keyes III, accused along with the Paulsons of carrying out the abduction.

"Whichever one is ready to go, that's what we'll try," said state District Judge Kenneth DeHart.

Regardless of who the defendants are, the trial will be of keen interest in the resort, whose residents have watched closely as their one-time tormentors have made their way through the legal system.

McLaren was generally viewed for years as a thorn in the community's side, making life miserable by filing liens on people's property and harassing them through lawsuits they had to waste time and money to fight.

The locals called it paper terrorism.

Resort residents later came to consider McLaren an outright threat as he helped launch the statewide Republic movement and surrounded himself with armed supporters, his so-called defense forces.

"The siege changed everything. All of a sudden he became everybody's business," said Michele Behrent, another resort resident.

Now they're hoping the trials will help heal the community.

"It may provide some closure for the people here that someone is trying to dispense justice," said Rachel Barr, who remained shut away in her home during the standoff's first day.

A cynicism born in the days of the siege lingers, however. Residents say they have seen McLaren escape too often the fate he deserves and don't believe they will have heard the last of him even if he goes to prison.

McLaren proved the skeptics right to some extent when he sued DeHart, the Rowes and other officials while in jail for what he termed unlawful imprisonment and acts of war against the Republic.

"I was extremely disappointed that the man left here alive. I may seem like a witch, but that's just the way I feel about it," said Behrent. "The only way our problems would have been over is if McLaren had left here dead."Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
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