Saturday, May 01, 1999
Trial will test Ohio sham law
Common law case called a threat
BY SHEILA McLAUGHLIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — A man accused of threatening the county prosecutor was ordered jailed on a $150,000 bond Friday.
Larry Roten, who believes in the common law movement, stuck to his convictions and refused to stand before Judge P. Daniel Fedders at an arraignment in Warren County Common Pleas Court.
He also refused to enter a plea to charges of intimidation and using a sham legal process, and objected when the judge entered a plea of not guilty for him.
“I'm a private civilian, and the law says a civilian cannot be tried in a military court. You are using a sham legal process,” Mr. Roten said before being cut off in mid-sentence by Judge Fedders.
Mr. Roten was indicted in January on two counts of intimidation and four counts of using a sham legal process. He is accused of threatening to file a $5 million lien against Prosecutor Tim Oliver in a dispute over the custody of Mr. Roten's father.
Followers of common law believe that government should be run by its citizens. They distrust modern courts, so they set up their own and seek judgments against those they think have wronged them.
When Mr. Roten goes to trial later this year, it will be the first test of Ohio's sham law, enacted in 1996 to keep common law filings from bogging down the court system.
Police arrested Mr. Roten on Sunday after searching for him for three months. He was arraigned in Lebanon Municipal Court on Monday on a separate charge of resisting arrest.
Because Mr. Roten was on the run for three months, special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier asked the judge Friday for a high bond.
Judge Fedders asked Mr. Roten why he didn't turn himself in to police and where he had been since January.
“I'm in the ministry, and I do a lot of traveling,” he replied.
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