New charges for Fred Russell

COLFAX – Karen Overacker feared she might never actually see Fred Russell.

She’d seen his picture, of course. Russell is accused of causing the drunken-driving accident that killed her son and two other Washington State University students in June 2001. But it wasn’t until Monday afternoon – after Russell had disappeared for four years, and after another year of extradition battles in Irish courts – that Overacker finally laid eyes on him.

“I did feel that maybe they would never find him,” said Overacker, of Wapato. “I was thinking hard about how I was going to handle it if he never came back.”

Overacker was one of several victims’ relatives present in Whitman County Superior Court for Russell’s first public appearance here since he fled five years ago.

In a brief hearing before Judge David Frazier, Russell was charged with three new felonies – counts of forgery and theft for allegedly forging and cashing a check on his father’s account in 2001, and a single count of bail jumping. He had previously been charged with vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault.

On Monday, Russell pleaded not guilty to the charges of forgery and theft, but he won’t be arraigned on the bail-jumping charge until Dec. 1. That charge may be dropped as part of the extradition agreement. His attorney, Francisco Duarte, told the judge he didn’t want to raise the issue of bail Monday, so Russell will remain in the Whitman County Jail until his next hearing.

Russell, 27, wore a blue sports coat and red tie, and said little during the hearing apart from entering his pleas.

Prosecutors say he was drunk, driving 90 mph and attempting to pass other cars on June 4, 2001, as he returned from an Idaho bar on the Moscow-Pullman highway. Russell crashed into three other cars, killing three students and injuring four people.

Killed in the crash were Overacker’s son, Brandon Clements, 22; Stacy G. Morrow, 21; and Ryan Sorensen, also 21.

According to the charges, Russell registered a 0.12 blood-alcohol level after the accident, above the legal limit of .08. Russell was charged with three counts each of vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $5,000 bail – far below the prosecutors’ request of $100,000.

In October of 2001, prosecutors say, he persuaded a friend to drive him to Canada, where he flew to Europe and eventually settled in Dublin, Ireland, under an assumed name. Irish police arrested him in October 2005 after receiving a tip.

Russell spent the last year fighting extradition – a legal battle with uncertain prospects, given the fact that Ireland has routinely refused to turn over alleged criminals to the United States. He lost that battle last week, however, and left Ireland for the jail in Colfax on Friday.

Monday’s hearing was brief and largely procedural. Frazier read Russell his constitutional rights, noting that even though he’d heard that recitation in 2001, there were new charges and “it’s been several years, Mr. Russell.”

The state attorney general’s office has taken over prosecution of the case, with chief criminal prosecutor Lana Weinmann appearing in court Monday. Russell has also hired a new attorney, Duarte. Attempts to reach both attorneys after the hearing were unsuccessful.

Duarte didn’t address the issue of whether he will attempt to have the trial moved out of Whitman County because of publicity. But Russell’s attorneys had filed such a motion before he fled in 2001, and it’s expected to come up again.

Rich Morrow, the father of Stacy Morrow, said after the hearing that people should remember the lesson of the case: “Drinking and driving kills people. Everybody watching this needs to keep that in mind. This is what happens.”

In an emotional interview with reporters, Morrow said he believes prosecutors have a good case against Russell, but “I believe in the system. He is due the best defense anybody can put up right now.”

Overacker said it was “difficult” to see Russell, but also that it’s good he’s been brought back to face the charges.

“It reopens everything, but it also gives me a little hope that maybe we’re finally going to see an end to this and put it behind us,” she said.

“I know he’s not going to get the amount of time I’d like to see him get,” she said. “No amount of time is going to bring my son back.”