RAINBOW FARMS DEATHS 'JUSTIFED'

Police were hesitant to leave an angry Grover "Tom" Crosslin after
receiving a report that the Vandalia man was threatening to fire a gun at
anyone who ventured down a road leading to his property.

They feared that Crosslin, who already had fired on a news helicopter as it
flew over his Rainbow Farms campground in Vandalia, might hit innocent
bystanders, Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter said at a news conference
Monday.

"Had we pulled out and some unknown person or innocent person drove down
that road, we have no reason to believe after firing on a helicopter he
wouldn't fire on somebody else," Teter said. "So we were there for the
duration."

The situation led to a five-day standoff last Aug. 31 through Sept. 4
between law enforcement officers and Crosslin, 46, and his companion,
Rolland Rohm, 28.Authorities believe the standoff was sparked by Crosslin's
anger over an upcoming bond revocation court hearing. The standoff ended
after an FBI agent shot Crosslin and Michigan State Police shot Rohm,
killing them both.

Teeter announced at Monday's news conference that after finishing a
three-month investigation, he has concluded that the shootings were
"justifiable homicides" because of the danger the two men posed to law
enforcement officers.

The prosecutor said an FBI agent acted in a defensive mode by firing only
after Crosslin raised a fully loaded semi-automatic assault rifle and
pointed it at him from a distance of only 22 feet.Crosslin was shot on
Sept. 3. Law enforcement officials had been at the site since Aug. 31 after
neighbors said Crosslin was burning buildings on his property.

"Given the FBI deadly force policy, which is consistent with Michigan law,
that the shooter have a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm and
that that fear be imminent, and that the attacker have the present capacity
to inflict the same, the agent's actions were clearly justified," Teter
said in a report released Monday.

He said a second FBI agent who fired simultaneously with the first on
Crosslin acted properly as well. He said no charges would be filed against
either agent.

Teter also said the actions of authorities were justified during the Sept.
4 fatal shooting of Rohm, who lived with Crosslin at Rainbow Farms.

He said law enforcement officials were trying to negotiate Rohm's surrender
after Crosslin's death. Rohm allegedly agreed to surrender to police on the
morning of Sept. 4 so he could see his 12-year-old son.

But shortly after 6 a.m., authorities observed a fire at the home where
Rohm was holed up. The man came out shortly after with a fully loaded
automatic rifle, Teter said.

Police had moved a light armored vehicle to the scene to block an escape path.

"He was dressed in full camouflage with black face paint, and his actions
were clearly observed by (Michigan State Police) from their observation
post," Teter said in the report.

"He ignored repeated instructions to surrender and drop his weapon. He had
already fired at police personnel," Teter said. "As Rolland Rohm tracked
the light armored vehicle movement through the smoke of the burning
residence with his rifle, it was clearly apparent that his intention was to
open fire on the vehicle when it cleared the smoke, making it visible to him."

Law enforcement officials in the front of the light armored vehicle, with
their heads and torsos outside of the protective armor, were vulnerable to
Rohm's weapon, Teter said.

Two Michigan State Police officers opened fire on Rohm.

"By firing their weapons to stop the threat presented by Rolland Rohm, they
succeeded in preventing the injury or death of the officers operating the
light armored vehicle," Teter said in the report.

He called the actions of the two state troopers justified and said no
charges would be filed against them.

Members of Crosslin's family declined to comment on the prosecutor's
findings. An attorney for the family said he would not comment until fully
reviewing the prosecutor's report.

Rohm's family is not from Michigan and it was not represented at the press
conference.

Teter said the U.S. Department of Justice conducted its own investigation
into whether Crosslin's civil rights had been violated because he was shot
by an FBI agent and found there was no violation.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice declined to comment. FBI
officials in Detroit said their internal review of the Rainbow Farms
standoff is still pending.

Friends and supporters of Crosslin and Rohm have criticized law enforcement
officials for the men's deaths.

"He says its justifiable homicide, but that's a bunch of bull," said Nikki
Lester, a friend of the two men and a former employee at Rainbow Farms.

"It's downright murder," she said Monday after listening to Teter's
explanation.

Other friends of Crosslin and Rohm met Monday at a local restaurant, Bonnie
and Clyde's in Cassopolis, to protest the men's deaths. Some said the two
men were targeted because of their support of marijuana use.

Authorities had been investigating suspected drug operations at Rainbow
Farms for the past two years. The campground has supported "the medical,
spiritual and responsible recreational use of marijuana," according to the
camp's Web site.

Both Crosslin and Rohm were facing drug charges.

"I think the war on drugs gives legitimacy to persecution," Trena Moss, a
friend of Crosslin and Rohm and a supporter of legalizing marijuana, said
at the restaurant. "As soon as you say drugs, it's like they can take
people's property, children and their lives.

"Tom was a good guy," she said. "He had a very big heart. He helped
everyone. People would come with their hand out and he would help.

"But when he got in trouble, all those people disappeared," Moss said. "He
absolutely would not stand for violence. If they are telling me he pointed
a gun at law enforcement officials, I don't believe it.

"What would it have hurt to wait until they got hungry and came out for
food?" Moss said. "Tom and Rolland were easy prey."

Moss was joined at Bonnie and Clyde's restaurant by Bill McMaster of
Taxpayers United Inc.

McMaster criticized the use of deadly force against Crosslin and Rohm,
saying the government was out to get Crosslin because of a tax dispute.

"It was not the marijuana, it was (because) they were supposedly not paying
their taxes," McMaster said.

Teter said in the report that state police, his office, the Cass County
Sheriff's Department, the Michigan attorney general's office and the state
treasurer's office executed a search warrant of the Rainbow Farms
Campground in May to show that Crosslin and Rohm were not withholding taxes
from employees' wages and were not filing proper tax returns.

He sought to have the campground declared a public nuisance and to get a
one-year injunction to close it and to initiate a civil forfeiture of real
property because of ongoing violations of the controlled-substance act.

Teter said that during a search of the site, authorities found an indoor
hydroponic marijuana-growing operation. Three hundred plants were growing
in the basement of the residence at the campground. Several loaded firearms
were found in the residence, he said.

Teter noted that undercover police also learned that a large supply of
drugs was available at Rainbow Farms during festivals and other events. He
said the belief that Crosslin and Rohm were just promoting marijuana use
was false.Police also found that cocaine, prescription drugs, pain killers,
methamphetamine, opium and other controlled substances were available at
Rainbow Farms, the prosecutor said.

"They bought every drug available on the street with the exception of
heroin," Teter said.