Scientology --- Yoder, Canadian woman married at mental hospital

Yoder, Canadian woman married at mental hospital

Southeast Missourian

CHESTER, Ill. -- It was a jailhouse wedding, but with a slightly different locale.

The nuptials took place Sunday at the Chester Mental Health Center, three days after a Randolph County jury decided that 12-year mental patient Rodney Yoder was mentally ill and too dangerous to be released.

"It wasn't a typical marriage, but I'm in love with her and she's in love with me," Yoder said.

A Scientologist minister[sic] presided over the ceremony while three guards stood watch. The groom has written more than 100 letters to public officials threatening to kill them. The bride is Canadian Millie Strom, who has lobbied for Yoder's release. Strom, 50, is a member of the anti-psychiatry movement and was married to legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker for five years.

Yoder attracted national media attention last week when he put "psychiatry on trial" during his commitment hearing in which he argued that there is no such thing as mental illness. The jury deliberated for just over an hour before reaching its verdict.

Working on transfer

"She's my family now," Yoder said. "She's my son's stepmother.

She's meeting with administrators this minute to see about getting me transferred to another facility."

The wedding vows were slightly different, Yoder said.

"Originally, the minister was going to say we were gathered in a holy place," he said. "But we took that out immediately.

I wanted to say we were gathered in a psycho-prison, but we decided against it."

2002, Southeast Missourian. This story is available at:

http://semissourian.com/story.html?rec=95819

From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 13 Dec 2002 18:41:20 GMT
Subject: Yoder defends Kretchmar
Message-ID: <20021213134120.17828.00000039@mb-mm.aol.com>

South East Missourian Dec. 13, 2002

Rodney Yoder rebuts claims made in column

To the editor:

In reply to Scott Moyers' Monday-morning quarterbacking of my lawyer's defense of me: In 20 some years of defending and prosecuting legal proceedings, I've never seen a better effort by any lawyer. Randy Kretchmar was forced to trial with short notice and without adequate preparation time. Then a blizzard arrived during the trial.

Contrary to Moyers' suggestion, I will not engage in deceit and pretend to believe in my captors' pseudo-religion. Shucking and jiving my captors was, incidentally, expressly denied to me as an option.

Moyers' characterization of my demeanor and testimony, while colorful and supportive of his forgone conclusions, isn't supported by the record.

C. RODNEY YODER

From: Tilman Hausherr <tilman@berlin.snafu.de>
Subject: Re: Yoder defends Kretchmar
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 21:41:51 +0100
Organization: Xenu's Ranch
Message-ID: <bfhkvuc5ro1ca205cre4p1e32lcpvq4lgc@4ax.com>

I found a letter by his CCHR wife:

http://www.semissourian.com/story.html$rec=96172

Mental patients can marry -- and cast votes

To the editor:

In response to the Speak Out comment objecting to my marriage to Rodney Yoder at Chester Mental Health Center: At one time, the so- called mentally ill were sterilized and victims of eugenics. Nazi psychiatrists first practiced eugenics on the mentally ill before moving on to Jews.

Unlike many criminals in prison who are allowed family visits, mental patients are not allowed conjugal visits. Do the public and psychiatry think mental patients are not capable of being loved and loving and would not benefit from both romantic and physical love?

Perhaps readers should be more concerned that their tax dollars are spent on a man like Rodney, feeding and housing him like a child, when he is quite capable of earning a living, preparing his own meals and doing his own laundry. Illinois spends around $150,000 a year to keep Rodney imprisoned.

On the other hand, unlike felons, mental patients can vote. If it bothers readers that Rodney married, I bet it will really irritate them that Rodney votes by absentee ballot, as he did in the last state election.

Rodney Yoder may be the only mental patient in America who has his wits about him to engage in both marriage and electing politicians.

MILLIE STROM YODER

Vancouver, British Columbia

Canada

-- Tilman Hausherr [KoX, SP5.55] Entheta * Enturbulation * Entertainment tilman@berlin.snafu.de http://www.xenu.de

Resistance is futile. You will be enturbulated. Xenu always prevails.

Find broken links on your web site: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html The Xenu bookstore: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/bookstore.html

From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 15 Dec 2002 02:08:06 GMT
Subject: Kretchmar feels cheated
Message-ID: <20021214210806.01018.00000040@mb-fk.aol.com>

*Note: ( Randy Kretchmar is a Chicago Scientologist and OSA agent. The OSA or Office of Special Affairs is the Church of Scientology's secret service organization. It was formerly called the Guardian's Office...until 12 Scientologists were sentenced to prison for infiltrating and stealing files from FBI and IRS offices. Kretchmar got his law degree last year.)

Mental patient loses bid for freedom

Southeast Missourian ~ Friday, December 6, 2002

By Scott Moyers ~ Southeast Missourian

CHESTER, Ill. -- Rodney Yoder and Millie Strom were planning their life together. An unsigned marriage certificate on the table and Yoder's arm around a beaming Strom, they talked about moving to Vermont, buying a house and growing old together.

At that moment late Thursday afternoon, the future was full of possibilities.

But an hour later, a six-person Randolph County jury deliberating in the next room threw a severe wrinkle into their plans, finding "clearly and convincingly" that Yoder was severely mentally ill and would likely hurt himself or someone else if he were released from a maximum-security facility for the criminally insane.

Strom began crying after Circuit Judge William Schuwerk read the verdict.

Yoder's friend and defense manager John Prior sighed deeply and angrily as he ran his hands through his hair. Yoder's 17-year-old son, Loren, left the room, found a corner and sobbed.

The normally animated Yoder sat quietly with his hands in his lap while the judge thanked the jury members for their service.

Outside the courtroom, the news cameras and newspaper reporters from St. Louis, Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois geared up to ask questions about a man who has attracted national media attention for a case that had been billed as "putting psychiatry on trial."

It was the emotional end to four days of testimony in which Yoder -- who has been involuntarily incarcerated at Chester Mental Health Center since 1991 -- tried to convince a jury for the 12th time that there is no such thing as mental illness and that he is a danger to no one.

Yoder's attorney, Randy Kretchmar, said he felt cheated.

"They gagged my witnesses and I wasn't allowed to try my case," Kretchmar said.

"All this means is that this is not over."

Schuwerk had ruled earlier in the week that defense witnesses, a neurologist and two psychiatrists, could not present testimony that suggested mental illness does not exist. Yoder, 44, wanted to make the case that there are no medical signs of mental illness and that it is a sham created by psychiatrists who want to keep paychecks coming. Schuwerk said that was not acceptable because it goes against what most in the medical community believe.

The day was not without concessions for Yoder. Schuwerk said he planned to recommend to the Illinois Department of Health that Yoder be moved from Chester to a minimum-security facility, based on testimony from a prosecution psychiatrist who said Yoder would likely be better served in a "less restrictive" environment.

"That's nothing," said Strom, who was married to legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker two decades ago. "It's a crumb. To me that was the worst. He doesn't want to be moved to a lesser facility. He wants his liberty. Rodney deserves his liberty."

The jury disagreed, taking only an hour to mull over the hours of testimony.

They listened as assistant state's attorney Michael Burke described the more than 100 threatening letters to judges, politicians and other people that Yoder said he sent in the mid-90s to get a transfer from the mental hospital to a federal prison, where he would have a set release date.

"I find myself fantasizing about filling you full of holes with a large-caliber handgun," a letter Yoder sent to a judge said. Yoder read from that letter when he took the stand Thursday morning for cross-examination.

Yoder also abused two women, one an ex-girlfriend and the other his ex-wife.

Both cases sent Yoder to prison.

"The jury made the right decision," Burke said. "My feelings are that Rodney Yoder is dangerous, and the expert witnesses backed that up."

Burke said he was reluctant to criticize the judge's recommendation that Yoder be moved to a minimum-security prison, but he didn't think it was a good move.

"He's refusing treatment and has shown no progress," Burke said. "He's never shown any remorse for what he's done. When people got those letters, they were scared. He's intelligent. He very easily could fashion a car bomb or worse.

He's right where he needs to be."

This was the first trial for Kretchmar, a Chicago lawyer who represented Yoder for free. He said he plans to begin preparing for Yoder's next hearing, which is supposed to take place in six months. Yoder is entitled to a commitment hearing every 180 days. He hopes to get a change of venue for a hearing away from Randolph County.

Strom said she still plans to marry Yoder sometime this weekend.

"I can be a better advocate as a wife," she said. "The administration will have to respond to my letters. Rodney and I are going to have our life together."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------

http://semissourian.com/story.html?rec=95456

From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 16 Dec 2002 22:24:55 GMT
Subject: Yoder's lawyer had a hidden agenda
Message-ID: <20021216172455.10360.00000114@mb-fa.aol.com>

Yoder's lawyer had an agenda in his defense

Southeast Missourian ~ Monday, December 16, 2002

To the editor:

Scott Moyers' column on the Rodney Yoder trial was an excellent piece and brought out some interesting points. Moyers commented that Yoder's attorney, Randy Kretchmar, was a Scientologist, and he wondered if Kretchmar was there to help Yoder or to further the Church of Scientology's anti-psychiatry agenda.

As a former Scientologist and one who has had some experience with Kretchmar, I can assure Moyers that he got it right. Kretchmar was using Yoder to attack psychiatry. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, decreed that Scientology would eradicate "evil" psychiatry and take over the field of mental health.

Most Scientologists do not know that psychiatrists are highly trained medical doctors. They think they are some entity outside of medicine. Scientologists learn that all humans have clusters of invisible alien spirits attached to them, and these are the cause of all human problems, mental and physical.

Scientologists are reluctant to share this information with the outside world and are forbidden to speak of it among themselves. If Kretchmar had presented Hubbard's cosmic discoveries to the jury and got them to see that invisible alien spirits were causing Yoder's behavior, the outcome could have been different.

Randy Kretchmar had a hidden agenda and was dishonest in his representation of Rodney Yoder.

JAMES BEEBE

Northbrook, Ill.

http://semissourian.com/story.html?rec=96469

From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 16 Dec 2002 22:24:55 GMT
Subject: Yoder's lawyer had a hidden agenda
Message-ID: <20021216172455.10360.00000114@mb-fa.aol.com>

Yoder's lawyer had an agenda in his defense

Southeast Missourian ~ Monday, December 16, 2002

To the editor:

Randy Kretchmar had a hidden agenda and was dishonest in his representation of Rodney Yoder.

JAMES BEEBE

Northbrook, Ill.

http://semissourian.com/story.html?rec=96469

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