Irish judge agrees to extradite Russell
Frederick D. Russell could be back in the Palouse by mid-June to stand trial for his role in a crash that killed three students and severely injured four others.
A judge in Ireland granted a request Tuesday to extradite Russell to the United States to face trial on three counts of vehicular manslaughter in Whitman County.
The extradition has been under review ever since the former Washington State University student was found in Dublin on Oct. 23, four years to the day after he fled the United States.
“This is really a very significant step in getting him back into a Whitman County courtroom,” Prosecutor Denis Tracy said. “Based on the track record of Irish courts in not granting extradition, we were quite concerned. But it looks like the effort is paying off.”
Russell, 27, is charged in the 2001 crash on state Highway 270, the two-lane road that connects Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.
His attorney, Mark Moorer, said his client has always maintained his innocence.
“That appears to be the question of the day: Will he appeal (the extradition ruling)?” Moorer asked. “I have an e-mail in to (Russell’s) solicitor (in Ireland) and I am waiting for a response.”
Accident reports said Russell was driving an SUV about 90 mph and trying to pass other vehicles when it struck three cars the night of June 4, 2001. All the dead and seriously injured victims were returning from a movie in one car.
Killed in the crash were WSU seniors Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato; Stacy G. Morrow, 21, of Milton; and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport. Seriously injured were John Wagner, of Harrington, Kara Eichelsdoerfer, of Central Park, and Sameer Ranade, of Kennewick.
Russell suffered minor injuries. At the hospital after the crash, his blood-alcohol level measured 0.12 percent, above the legal intoxication threshold of 0.08.
A few days before his trial was to begin, Russell hitched a ride on Oct. 23, 2001, with Bernadette Olson, who was a graduate student at the time studying under Russell’s father, Greg Russell. The elder Russell is a former prosecutor who then was working as the head of WSU’s criminal justice program.
Olson drove Fred Russell to the airport in Calgary, Alberta. Federal officials believe Russell flew immediately to England before settling in Ireland.
In March 2004, Olson pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to investigators about her interactions with Russell. She later resigned from her post as assistant professor of criminal justice and legal studies at the University of West Florida.
Tracy’s office, with help from U.S. officials, filed for Russell’s extradition after a Dublin tipster spotted his photograph on the U.S. Marshals Service’s Web site, which listed Russell among the United States’ 15 most-wanted criminal suspects. He had been working in a Dublin lingerie shop under the alias David Carroll.
Until Tuesday, the return of Russell, who also faces four counts of vehicular assault and various charges relating to his fleeing the country, remained in doubt. That’s because the previous 18 attempts to extradite U.S. suspects had been denied by Irish officials, including a vehicular homicide case out of California, federal officials said last year.
Tracy said Russell has 15 days to appeal Tuesday’s extradition ruling to Ireland’s Supreme Court. But like Moorer, Tracy doesn’t know whether Russell and his two Irish attorneys will try to get the extradition overturned.
“I expect him back in this county by mid-June if he does not appeal,” Tracy said. “Once back in Whitman County, we will have 60 days with which to start his trial. But we will be ready to go.”
Moorer said it’s too early to say whether he will ask for a continuance for the vehicular manslaughter trial but said he expects to ask the judge to change the venue of the trial based on publicity of the case.