DEATHS DEFENDED

Teter Clears Officials Of Blame In Rainbow Farm Standoff

The late Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland Rohm have no one to blame but
themselves, Cass County Prosecutor Scott Teter said Monday.

By flouting a Cass County Circuit Court order and holding a festival at
their Rainbow Farm campground near Vandalia, the men set a chain of events
into motion that would end in the Sept. 3 and Sept. 4 deaths of both, Teter
said.

In a news conference held in the Cass County Courthouse on Monday, Teter
announced that he was closing his criminal investigation into the five-day
Labor Day weekend standoff at Rainbow Farm Campground, 59896 Pemberton Road.

Teter said his investigation showed conclusively that the deaths of both
men at the hands of law-enforcement sharpshooters were justifiable
homicides under Michigan law.

"I have no sympathy for" Rohm or Crosslin, Teter said. "None of the
officers who fired on them did so without justification."

Standing at a podium at the Cass County Courthouse's Kincheloe Room on
Monday in front of a room packed with reporters and cameras, he proceeded
to lay out in detail the events up to, during, and following the Sept. 3
killing of Crosslin, 46, and the Sept. 4 death of Rohm, 28.

It all started, Teter said, when the men elected to hold a festival at the
campground Aug. 17 and 18, violating a temporary injunction against holding
events at the campground ordered by Cass County Circuit Court Judge Michael
E. Dodge.

Because of that violation, and because undercover officers at the festival
had allegedly viewed Crosslin and Rohm using drugs, Teter filed for an
order to show cause and a motion to revoke the $150,000 bond on felony drug
charges filed against the men after a search warrant allegedly turned up a
marijuana growing operation at a historic home owned by Crosslin along
Michigan 60 west of Vandalia.

The hearing on the show cause order and the motion to revoke bond were
slated to be heard on Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m. EDT in Cass County Circuit Court.

But Crosslin and Rohm never showed. Instead, around noon that day, an
anonymous call came in to the Cass County Sheriff's Department that there
was a fire at the campground.

"Shortly after that, we received a call informing us that the fire was a
trick to get firemen to come to the property so they could be ambushed,"
Teter said. "The caller said Crosslin was patrolling his property in full
camouflage, carrying a rifle."

Then, around 1:30 p.m., people on the ground within the campground
allegedly began to fire weapons at aircraft flying over the area. When a
bullet passed through the tail of a helicopter owned by WNDU-TV, Channel
16, South Bend, authorities decided to call in the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.

"Shooting at an aircraft is a federal offense punishable by up to 20 years
in prison," Teter said. "We knew that these men were armed, and that they
were not coming out."

With Crosslin and Rohm hiding in the private house at the front of the
property along Pemberton Road, FBI agents and Michigan State Police
troopers set up positions around the perimeter of the campground to
"protect the public safety," Teter said. Cass County Sheriff's deputies
blocked nearby roads to keep away curious onlookers.

Forgotten coffeepot

It was FBI agents in these posts who first spotted Crosslin on Sept. 3,
when he left the house accompanied by 18-year-old Brandon Peoples, an
acquaintance who managed to sneak onto the campground property and join
Crosslin and Rohm.

Crosslin and Peoples headed up a trail to the home of a nearby neighbor to
steal food and a coffeemaker, and were allowed to pass within a few feet of
three hidden FBI snipers despite Crosslin reportedly being armed with a
Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle.

"Unfortunately, they forgot to get the pot that goes with the coffeemaker,"
Teter said.

So, at around 5:30 p.m., Crosslin and Peoples headed back up the trail to
get the coffeepot. This time, Teter said, Crosslin spotted an FBI special
agent with the last name Salomon, (no first name was available from Cass
County or federal authorities Monday) and reportedly raised the rifle to
his shoulder to fire.

But Salomon and another agent, identified as an FBI special agent with the
last name of Heffron, fired first.

"Salomon and Heffron fired at the same time," Teter said. "Salomon's bullet
went through the left side of Crosslin's head, killing him instantly."

Heffron's bullet, however, went through a small tree and shattered into
multiple pieces causing small wounds to Crosslin's right side

A desperate flight

After receiving news of Crosslin's death, Rohm began negotiating with
police. Rohm agreed to surrender on one condition: That he be allowed to
speak with his estranged 12-year-old son, Robert.

Arrangements were made to bring the boy to the police command center at the
old Bivouac recreational vehicle factory along Michigan 60, where he would
speak with his father at 7 a.m. Sept. 4.

But shortly after 6 a.m., a fire flared up at the house where Rohm was hiding.

He reportedly ran out of the back of the home after the blaze started,
armed with another Ruger Mini-14 and dressed in camouflage.

To prevent his escape, Teter said an eight-wheeled light armored vehicle
(LAV) borrowed from the Michigan National Guard was positioned along the
front of the property, with 10 men inside.

"When the (LAV) came around the front of the house, Rohm raised his rifle
up at it," Teter said. "A sniper observed this and fired a shot at him,
with the bullet passing through the stock of (Rohm's) rifle and hitting him."

Michigan State Police Troopers Daniel Lubelan and John Julin, who are part
of the agency's statewide Emergency Services Team, fired a total of 10
shots at Rohm, who died on the spot.

An autopsy conducted by Dr. Stephen Cohle of Spectrum Health in Grand
Rapids showed that the killing shot had passed through his shoulder and
throat. Another bullet entered his right thigh and exited through his belly.

Justifiable killing

After a painstaking recollection of the events during the standoff, Teter
said that the shootings of both men fell under the category of justifiable
homicide. Crosslin's death was a case of self-defense and Rohm's death
falling under the category of the Michigan "defense of others'" law, Teter
said.

Both laws require the shooter to follow three rules.

First, there must be an honest and reasonable belief that a life is
endangered. Second, the threatening person may not be killed if there is
only a threat of minor injury to the victim. Third, the shooter must
believe the shooting is reasonably necessary to avoid the killing of an
innocent person.

"In Crosslin's case, it came down to a question of 'do you shoot him or do
you die?'," Teter said. "Under Michigan law, both of these shootings were
justifiable homicide."

But nearly everybody wishes it had never come to this.

Lt. Mike Risko, public information officer with the Michigan State Police
5th District headquarters in Paw Paw, Mich., said that MSP personnel
involved in the standoff acted responsibly, but it was a peaceful
resolution that everyone had been hoping for.

"We didn't want it to come out that way. The hope going in was, what a lot
of people say in anger, they won't actually do," he said. "What we were
hoping for, that they'd calm down and think better of it, didn't happen"

FBI Special Agent Dawn Clenney of the Detroit field office declined Monday
to comment on the case or on the agents involved. She said that the
internal investigation into the shooting of Crosslin is "ongoing."

Rainbow Farm Postscript:

After the smoke from the Rainbow Farm campground five-day standoff over
Labor Day weekend had cleared, authorities set about the task of cleaning
up the mess. While searching the interior of a house owned by late Rainbow
Farm owner Grover "Tom" Crosslin, 46, along Michigan 60 west of Vandalia,
authorities came across an unsigned letter that may have provided some
insight into possible reasons for the bloodshed.

Here is the letter in its entirety:

The time has past (sic) for a peaceful solution to this nation's drug war.
Our government has destroyed our families.

The action we must take now is not what we wanted. We would have prefered
(sic) a peaceful end to the drug war, but it was denid (sic) so theay (sic)
must live with the consaquinses (sic).

No longer are we talking peace. The government must be stopped.

(Cass County Prosecutor) Scott Teter knew what was coming, the same with
the "rubber stamp" (Cass County Circuit Court) Judge (Michael E.) Dodge.

Our police no longer serve and protect us. We need (to be) protected from
peopel (sic) we hire to protect us.

This (expletive) is over. "Let the battel (sic) begin." Live with it.

Tribune Staff Writers Lou Mumford and Ashley Lowery contributed to this report.