Band Of Secessionists Continues Texas Standoff Two Hostages Freed After Confederate Released From Jail

A renegade band of Republic of Texas members released its two hostages Monday in exchange for a jailed confederate, then settled into a standoff with state troopers that forced the evacuation of approximately 50 families from a subdivision here.

Joe and Margaret Ann Rowe had been held at gunpoint in their home in the Davis Mountain Resort subdivision for more than 14 hours before Richard McLaren, the group’s leader, agreed to release them.

Rowe, 65, was listed in good condition late Monday at Big Bend Regional Hospital, where he was being treated for lacerations and a broken arm suffered when three armed Republic of Texas members burst into his home. Margaret Rowe told reporters at the Alpine, Texas, hospital that she and her husband believe the attackers were willing to kill them.

“It wasn’t an empty threat,” she said. “If somebody will come shooting in your door, they mean it.”

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike Cox said Texas Ranger Capt. Barry Caver negotiated with McLaren for several hours Sunday night before McLaren agreed to release the Rowes in return for the release of Robert J. Scheidt, 43, a Republic member who had been arrested in the subdivision Sunday.

A 14-member state SWAT team was being assembled outside the neighborhood on Monday, but Cox would not speculate on when the team might be sent in.

The Republic movement has drawn attention for its stance that Texas is a sovereign nation, illegally annexed to the United States in 1845. The group has been noted for filing bogus liens on its “enemies”’ property and for calling for the impeachment of scores of state officials.

Recently, there has been a split in the ranks. After McLaren and a few other members were expelled, McLaren formed his own, splinter Republic group and began referring to his “soldiers” as “Javalenas.”

But no real violence had been attributed to the band until Sunday.

Cox said events leading to the Rowes’ kidnapping began Sunday morning, when Jeff Davis County Sheriff Steve Bailey received a call that a man in military fatigues was trespassing in the subdivision.

Cox said Bailey drove to the subdivision, about 15 miles southwest of Fort Davis, saw Scheidt dressed in fatigues and stopped him. Bailey found weapons, including a semiautomatic rifle, in Scheidt’s vehicle and arrested him for trespassing and unlawfully carrying firearms, both Class A misdemeanors.

The arrest apparently mobilized other Republic of Texas members, three of whom converged on the Rowes’ home about 11:30 a.m. and blasted the front door open with a shotgun, injuring Rowe. The three - two men and a woman - then barged into the home and took the couple hostage, Cox said.

The trio held the Rowes at gunpoint but reportedly did not converse with them.

The DPS was called in, and Caver began negotiating with McLaren, who has demanded that Texans be allowed to vote on seceding from the United States and that the United Nations be called in to mediate his grievances with the state.

“During the negotiations, Capt. Caver became increasingly concerned for the safety of the Rowes,” Cox said. “About 11:30 p.m. Sunday, he conferred with Sheriff Bailey, and the decision to release Scheidt was reached. With only Class A misdemeanors, he would have been bonded out within hours anyway.”

After the Rowes were released at 2:30 a.m., Scheidt was allowed to return to the Republic of Texas compound within the subdivision, but his weapons were not returned, Cox said.

That left the group with at least six members holed up in a building they term their “embassy.” Cox would not say exactly how many Republic members were thought to be in the compound, but he did say that no more than “several” are suspected of being there.

The ensuing standoff left other residents of the subdivision in limbo.

The area is large, encompassing about 9,000 acres with each homesite on five acres or more, and many residents were unaware of the violence.

The DPS cordoned off the area late Sunday and would not allow residents outside the subdivision to return to their homes. On Monday, the sheriff’s office began calling those still within the subdivision, urging them to evacuate.

Cox said most residents had left by Monday afternoon, and all except Republic of Texas members were expected to be gone by Monday night.

“We’re securing three felony warrants for aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping for the persons who broke into the Rowe home, and those can be served at any time,” Cox said.

McLaren has a reputation in Fort Davis as a talented, hyperactive man with impassioned political beliefs.

He first came to the area in 1983 as manager of a vineyard. He moved into the Davis Mountain Resort area and immediately began complaining that surveys of the property lines were incorrect.

The vineyard failed, and he attempted a second winery. When that failed also, he began doing odd jobs around town until he became involved with the Republic of Texas several years ago.