TAPES REFUTE 'PTA MOM' CASE

Friends and relatives of Christina Korbe say she thinks of nothing
but her children while she sits in jail on charges of killing an FBI
agent and grieves for his family.

But her words, taped during jailhouse phone calls and played during
her federal detention hearing Monday, paint a different picture.

Korbe, 40, of Indiana Township threatened to kill two people during
calls and confessed to using cocaine. She joked with a relative about
appearing on "Oprah" one day to talk about her ordeal. She told a
cousin she is regarded as a hero and celebrity in the Allegheny
County Jail.

She called slain Special Agent Sam Hicks "the (expletive) cop. The
one that died."

"So they're gettin' all that public sympathy with him and his family,
but what about my family?" Korbe said in a Nov. 24 phone call to a
relative, lamenting that the Tribune-Review published a photo of
Hicks, his wife and 2-year-old son but not one of her and her daughter.

"She is not the person she claims to be," said Assistant U.S.
Attorney Troy Rivetti. "She is not the PTA mom. She is not the pillar
of the community."

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell agreed with prosecutors that
Korbe poses a danger to society and ordered her yesterday to remain
jailed. She faces a possible life sentence if convicted in the Nov.
19 death of Hicks, whom she is accused of fatally shooting as he and
other officers tried to arrest her husband on drug charges at their
home.

Mitchell said Christina Korbe would remain in custody for a number of
reasons, including the seriousness of the charges and the recorded
phone calls. She is charged with murder, assaulting federal officers
and employees, and using a firearm during a violent crime.

Defense attorney John Elash said his client was defending herself and
her two children when she fired her gun early that morning because
she did not know the people raiding her home were law enforcement
officers.

He said Korbe's comments were taken out of context.

"You could understand people standing at a phone in the middle of a
jail pod with other inmates around may speak differently," Elash told
Mitchell.

Rivetti characterized Korbe's actions as "callous, wanton disregard
for human life."

Korbe told a counselor at the jail that she "never used illicit drugs
as an adult," Rivetti said. But in a Nov. 24 phone call to a
relative, she is heard saying that a blood sample taken from her at
the hospital the day of Hicks' shooting would contain evidence of
cocaine use.

"I told 'em that there was coke in it, and so what?" Korbe said on
the tape. "I'm not lyin' about nothin'."

During a Nov. 23 phone call to her cousin, Korbe said she wasn't
concerned that her phone calls were recorded.

"The FBI is listening to every (expletive) word I say," Korbe
said.

"This is ridiculous," replied her cousin, Carrie Ann
Zacharias.

"It is ridiculous. I don't know what the (expletive) they think I'm
talking about, but all I'm tryin' to do is get ahold of my
(expletive) kids. So they suck my (expletive) (expletive)
(expletive). Listen to that!" She is then heard laughing.

When talking to her father-in-law Nov. 24, Korbe bragged that other
inmates told her they are "saying special prayers" for her.

"How 'bout I got asked for my autograph today twice," she told
Stephen Korbe, asking him to relay that to her husband, Robert Korbe.
"He'll laugh."

Robert Korbe, 39, is in the county jail on federal drug
charges.

Other calls recorded her threatening to kill her mother-in-law and an
employee at her husband's Sharpsburg auto detailing business, who she
said needs to "step up" and take the blame for a .38-caliber gun
police seized at the business.

During testimony from an FBI agent about the shooting, Christina
Korbe clutched a pocket-sized Bible and held a large crucifix
medallion around her neck, crying a few times.

Several of her friends testified, including Heather Cullinan, who
told the judge that her daughter and Korbe's 10-year-old girl,
Taylor, are best friends.

"She has all the qualities I want my children to be around," Cullinan
said of Korbe. "They have never shown me any indication that she is
not an exceptional mother and woman."

Hicks' relatives left the courtroom without commenting.

Before the hearing, some of Korbe's relatives held a protest outside
U.S. District Court, Downtown.

"She calls every chance she gets, to talk to the kids," said her
brother, Gilbert Roland Jr. "Those kids are her life, and they are
all she thinks about. She feels bad about what happened, but she
doesn't deserve this.

"She's being punished because the police don't want to admit they
made a mistake by busting down her front door like that when she and
her kids were in the house. What was she supposed to do? She got the
gun because she thought her kids were in danger."