Missouri committee recommends expulsion for state rep over alleged abuse of his children

A Missouri House committee has recommended Lee’s Summit Rep. Rick Roeber be expelled from office after finding that he sexually and physically abused his now-adult children when they were young.

In the House Ethics Committee’s report released late Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers deemed the freshman Republican’s accusers — including his ex-wife and three of his four children — credible. They testified he had committed acts that under Missouri law would constitute “sexual contact” or “deviate sexual intercourse,” according to the report.

The committee also found accusations of physical abuse by Roeber, including beatings and an incident that left one child with a scarred eyelid. The evidence in the case, which included testimony from five witnesses, was “clear and convincing,” the committee said.

Witnesses described to the committee a household terrorized by an alcoholic Roeber who sexually abused two children and physically abused all four, frequently beating the children with a belt, and at one point drowned several puppies.

“The state of Missouri has failed these children over 20 years,” the committee wrote.

The grim findings came less than a week after the House unanimously took the unusual step of forcing Roeber to remain a state representative while the committee finished its investigation, with lawmakers citing the seriousness of the allegations.

Roeber had tried to resign as the committee’s investigation neared its conclusion, after being told of the committee’s recommendations and initially indicating he would object to them in a formal hearing, according to the report. After lawmakers rejected his resignation last Thursday, he is now likely to become only the second Missouri House member ever expelled. The first was in 1865, for disloyalty to the Union.

The vote to expel, which will require a two-thirds majority, is expected this week. Roeber turned in his state capitol entry badge last week, the committee said.

Lawmakers have indicated they support further consequences for Roeber, including criminal prosecution. In the report’s conclusion, the committee emphasized Roeber’s alleged actions constitute felonies. House leaders earlier had contacted prosecutors about the investigation.

Testifying in his defense before the Committee, Roeber was “combative, defensive, defiant and at times angry,” according to the report. He called the accusations a “political hit” and said, “all my kids are Democrats.”

Roeber’s adult children went public with accusations of abuse last fall in interviews with The Star’s Editorial Board. The allegations, which date back to the early 90s, were also documented in a sworn deposition nearly 20 years ago.

The Star’s report was published after Roeber had already run unopposed in the 2020 Republican primary to succeed his wife, Rep. Rebecca Roeber, who died in July 2019 after being seriously injured in a car crash in March.

In November 2020, he beat the Democrat Chris Hager by 301 votes.

He was expelled from the Republican caucus upon taking office.

Anastasia Roeber, Roeber’s adopted daughter, has said he made improper sexual advances toward her in 1990, when she was 9. Samson Roeber said he suffered physical abuse as a child. And Gabrielle Galeano said she was aware of the alleged abuse while living with Anastasia, Samson and another sibling.

Three of four Roeber children testified to the House committee, as well as Roeber’s ex-wife. The children, not named in the report, are referred to as Child 1, Child 2 (who did not testify), Child 3 and Child 4.

His ex-wife said Child 1 told her about being sexually abused by Roeber years after it occurred. She said Child 2 then told her that the two had also been sexually abused around the same time in 1990.

In one incident, when Child 2, then a toddler, knocked something over, Roeber flipped the child over and “just started beating [the child’s] ass,” she said. The child’s eyelid was struck by a nail in a board and left a permanent scar, she said.

She told the committee that although the Division of Family Services found probable cause abuse had occurred, the Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board overturned the finding. Roeber wanted the finding removed from the Central Registry because he was trying to get a position at a church that involved working with children, according to the report.

The ex-wife also testified that a judge denied her request for a protective order preventing Roeber from seeing the children.

Child 1 testified to being “sexually abused” and “groomed by [Roeber] from a very young age.”

“When we would ride in the car, he’d have his hand on my upper thigh just kind of rubbing it,” the witness testified, according to the report.

Child 1 testified that when they were 9, Roeber took the child’s hand and put it on his genitals. He told the child if they told anyone, he would go to jail and the “family would be ruined,” the report said.

Child 3 testified to receiving constant beatings from Roeber, and Child 4 testified to similar physical abuse. Both also said Child 2 suffered intense abuse.

Roeber denied all accusations to the committee and said he had been an alcoholic but did not suffer from any memory loss. Two of the children testified the abuse continued after he stopped drinking. Roeber said the accusations stemmed from a “bitter divorce” from his ex-wife that “spilled over to the children.”

He submitted to the committee what he said were emails between himself and Child 2 from September 2007 to February 2008, in which Child 2 appears to apologize for lying. But Roeber did not produce any additional emails the committee requested, and the committee “unanimously agreed that this was not credible evidence,” according to the report.

Last week, House Speaker Rob Vescovo, an Arnold Republican, wrote to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, requesting she help ensure the safety of a child Roeber currently has regular contact with, the Missouri Independent reported. The child is Roeber’s step-grandson who has weekend visits in his home, the committee said.

Vescovo and Rep. Travis Fitzwater, the Holts Summit Republican who chairs the Ethics Committee, wrote “we have learned information that needs to be forwarded to the proper authorities in your jurisdiction.”

Roeber made no mention of the investigation in his resignation letter, saying only that he and his fiance would be moving out-of-state.