LAPINE, Ore. -- Bouncing off the seat of a backhoe and slipping on his gloves, Ken Medenbach goes to work on a house he's constructing out of old refrigerators and water heaters.

Some day, it will be his dream home, a retreat deep in the woods of Central Oregon and far away from a society he believes is increasingly taken in by a corrupt government.

But to the building code enforcement officer for Klamath County, Ore., it's nothing more than a junkyard. So Kim Lundahl, whose job it is to ensure property owners don't violate county codes, cited Medenbach for "accumulation of solid waste," among other things, on his five-acre parcel.

Most residents of Klamath County regard Medenbach's views as peculiar or extreme. However, his grievance against government regulations strikes a sympathetic chord with many people who have tried to "fight city hall."

Medenbach refused to appear for his trial before a justice of the peace, and eventually went to jail over the matter. He never admitted breaking any law, and a year after being released from jail, he's still working on his refrigerator house.

It's just one example, Medenbach says, of how citizens must stand up to a government that's out of control, ruining the lives of the people it's supposed to protect.

"A 'code' is only a suggestion. It's not a law," Medenbach explains. The difference, he continues, is that codes are the invention of an oppressive government.

"The Constitution states simply that only the people can pass laws through the electorate."

When it comes to doing battle with what he considers corrupt governments, Medenbach doesn't discriminate. He spurns federal law, state law and county code with equal stubbornness.

He has squatted on public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, claiming the federal government doesn't have the right to own it. At one point, he threatened to defend his squatter's right with his life.

He refuses to obtain a driver license, saying it's an infringement on his freedom.

Medenbach claims federal and state judges have no authority over him because they are members of state bar associations, an illegal and unconstitutional extension of state government.

He refuses to pay federal or state income taxes, although he believes property taxes are justified to support local schools.

He has spent considerable time in jail in at least four counties because of his convictions.

He has never won a court case. However, he has an appeal pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stemming from his claim to Forest Service land in Washington state in February 1996.

It's hard to tell what led Medenbach to the belief that government in America has gone so far astray.

He comes from a seemingly mainstream family. He is soft-spoken, nonviolent, religious, even downright likable. He doesn't have a lot of debt and earns a meager living doing odd carpentry jobs.

"He was always a good kid, all the way through school. No dope, no stealing," says Medenbach's father, Harry Medenbach, a retired contractor who lives in Veneta, Ore.

Ken Medenbach played high school football, enjoyed gymnastics and dated girls, his father recalls. The father and son worked together for a few years, but then went separate ways.

Harry Medenbach says his son adopted strange ideas about the government after moving to Eastern Oregon.

"We told Kenny for years that we don't have a perfect government. But it's the best we can do, and it's the best government in the world," recounts Harry Medenbach, himself a World War II combat veteran.

Ken Medenbach says he began studying the U.S. Constitution and reading court cases after moving to a shack on his property about 10 miles from the small town of LaPine. Eventually, he became convinced government in America was out of control.

He joined the Central Oregon Militia, which held military exercises and plotted a strategy against government troops before disbanding last year.

Most of the former militia members regrouped under the name Constitution Rangers. Their new strategy, Medenbach says, is to expose unconstitutional laws and legal procedures used by the government.

Despite his views and habits, which some describe as anti-social, Medenbach has some significant ties to his community.

He recently began dating a woman who works for the U.S. Forest Service, an agency that had him thrown into jail last year in Washington state. He also attends the Westside Foursquare Gospel Church, one of the largest congregations in Bend, Ore., with more than 3,000 members.

"He's always a gentleman in our Bible studies," says CamMara Akers, who hosts a Bible study Medenbach attends in her home.

"He doesn't push his views on any of us. He doesn't bring up his political issues, although we all know about them, because we read in the paper about him being in jail."

Akers says members of the Bible study group don't criticize Medenbach. She says she agrees with some of his concerns about the role of government.

"He's not the fanatic that you might think he is. Where he sees injustice, he wants to make changes, not just for himself, but for everybody. He has a vision. It's not for us to judge him."

In fact, many people who know Medenbach sympathize with some of his views.

"He thinks you can just squat on a piece of (federal) land," says his father, Harry Medenbach. "You can't do that anymore. But I agree with him, that the land should be owned by the state instead of the federal government."

The government, meanwhile, shows little tolerance for Ken Medenbach's acts of civil disobedience.

In January 1996, Medenbach went to the aid of a "local control" group in Skamaniah County, Wash., by declaring "adverse possession" to more than 1,200 square miles of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest on behalf of the county's residents.

He erected a camp on national forest land and waited for Forest Service officials to cite him.

The Forest Service allowed Medenbach to stay 21 days -- the usual limit for occupying a campsite -- then had him arrested after he refused to respond to officers who asked him to move.

"The Gifford Pinchot National Forest still belongs to the people of the United States, as far as I know," Forest Service spokesman Tom Knappenburger said after Medenbach's arrest.

Medenbach, who served two months in jail in Pierce County, Wash., says he stands up for his principles.

"I'm willing to pay the price for my convictions," Medenbach says. "Someday, when the laws become too stringent, people will start waking up."

Medenbach appealed his conviction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. In his case, prepared by a court-appointed attorney, Medenbach claims he should not have been arrested because he was occupying public land for protest purposes. The case has not been heard yet.

While federal officials have plenty of power and resources to deal with Medenbach, the Klamath County Planning Department may have few alternatives.

Medenbach has already served a month in jail for refusing to clean up his property near LaPine.

Code enforcement officer Lundahl says he has been directed to continue prosecution, but he admits Medenbach may be able to beat the system.

"We can't take them to county line and tell them to get out and never come back, like they did in the old days," Lundahl says.

Foreclosure is the county's ultimate weapon for code violations. The problem for Klamath County, Lundahl explains, is a state law requires local governments to leave foreclosure victims with at least $20,000 worth of property.

In Medenbach's case, Lundahl says, that would essentially mean the county writing out a check for $20,000, since the property is worthless in its current condition.

On top of that, the county would then possess five acres covered with several truckloads of refuse.

Medenbach says he doesn't mind that he's often alone in his struggle against what he considers oppressive government. He takes comfort in the fact that leaders of the American Revolution were often in the minority.

"Two hundred and twenty years ago they saw the corruption," he says. "They had the right to revolution, and we have the right to revolution. I've chosen a passive method of having a revolution, instead of a violent one."

Eventually, he believes, organizations such as the Constitution Rangers will begin to appeal to the mainstream of American citizens.

"When people start losing their homes and they're not allowed to go from point A to point B, that's when the revolution will start."

Copyright 1997 Pioneer Newspapers Inc.
All Rights Reserved