Russell back in U.S. hands
Five years after he fled, Fred Russell is back on the Palouse.
Russell, the former Washington State University student charged with vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of three other students on the Moscow-Pullman highway, was expected to arrive at the Whitman County Jail in Colfax late Thursday. He was extradited from Ireland following a drawn-out court battle, and will have his first court appearance in Whitman County on Monday.
Russell, 27, left Dublin about midday on a plane bound for the United States, two Irish officials told the Associated Press. But they would provide no other details, and officials in Whitman County were similarly tightlipped about Russell’s travel arrangements.
Russell’s arrival in Colfax was the latest step in a bizarre, twisting tale that began June 4, 2001, when, prosecutors say, a drunken Russell, driving 90 mph and trying to pass on the notoriously dangerous highway, struck three cars. Three people died, and four others were injured. Russell suffered minor injuries and blew a 0.12 percent blood-alcohol level, above the 0.08 limit, officials said.
Facing three felony charges, Russell fled the country in October 2001, aided by one of his father’s WSU graduate students, who drove Russell to Canada. He was discovered working as a security guard in a Dublin lingerie shop under the name David Carroll and arrested on Oct. 23, 2005 – four years to the day after he fled.
Russell spent the next year fighting the extradition, and given Ireland’s record of refusing to extradite accused criminals from other countries, it was unclear whether he’d ever be brought to trial in Whitman County. In hearings about the extradition, Russell testified that he had flown from Canada to London, traveled through Europe, and then settled in Ireland, where he lived with his Irish girlfriend.
Gregory Russell, Fred’s father, was a WSU criminal justice professor; he now teaches at Arkansas State University, and officials have said he has cooperated with the investigation. His former graduate student, Bernadette Olson, pleaded guilty to federal charges for lying to investigators about helping Russell flee, and she later lost her job as a professor of criminal justice in Florida.
Three WSU seniors were killed in the crash: 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.
Irish police received a tip in January 2005 after someone identified Russell based on details from the U.S. Marshals Service’s “Most Wanted” Web site. They arrested him after months of haggling with U.S. justice officials over the details of extradition documents.
In May, Ireland’s second-highest court rejected Russell’s case to remain in Ireland, which included claims he would face an unfair trial in Washington state and could suffer physical abuse in a U.S. prison if convicted.
An appeal to the country’s highest Supreme Court failed in October.
His lawyer, Derek Burke, said he would file a claim for political asylum on Russell’s behalf, but that application was rejected on several grounds, including the fact that U.S. citizens are not eligible for asylum in Ireland, which has a specific list of asylum-eligible nationalities. Burke did not return telephone calls seeking comment.