Missouri Lawmaker Faces Expulsion Over Child Abuse Accusations An ethics committee report said that State Representative Rick Roeber physically and sexually abused his children and once drowned puppies in a pond. Lawmakers on the Missouri House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to recommend the expulsion of a colleague who they found to be credibly accused of child abuse.Credit...Whitney Curtis for The New York Times April 21, 2021, 6:46 a.m. ET A Missouri legislator faces expulsion from the state’s House of Representatives after an investigation by fellow lawmakers concluded that he had physically and sexually abused his children. After hearing testimony from his family and reviewing hundreds of pages of documents, the Missouri House Ethics Committee wrote a report finding that the lawmaker, Rick Roeber, physically abused his children, sexually abused one at age 9 and another at age 5, and once “drowned a litter of puppies in a nearby pond.”