Judge agrees to change site of Russell trial

COLFAX – The vehicular homicide trial of Fred Russell will be moved out of Whitman County, after the judge and prosecutors changed courses Monday to agree with defense attorneys that media coverage of the case would make it difficult to seat an impartial jury.

Judge David Frazier said he was leaning toward moving the trial to Cowlitz County in southwestern Washington, but was also considering other locations, including King County.

He had ruled in July that he would first try to seat a jury in Whitman County and bring in jurors from a nearby county if that didn’t work. But he said Monday he became convinced that was unworkable.

“I think from just about every standpoint, including, No. 1, the opportunity for a fair trial and the obvious difficulty you would have here … I agree now that change of venue is going to be the appropriate decision,” Frazier said.

Frazier is set to make a final decision on the trial’s location this morning. He said he wanted to stick to the Oct. 8 starting date, though prosecutors asked for a delay of a couple weeks to help arrange details of the move with more than 60 witnesses.

Also Monday, Frazier said he would issue a written ruling this week on a defense challenge to a blood-alcohol test that shows Russell was drunk at the time of a June 2001 accident that left three dead and three badly injured on the Moscow-Pullman Highway. Russell’s attorneys want the charges dismissed or the blood test suppressed because the state toxicology lab accidentally destroyed the blood sample, so the results can’t be independently confirmed.

Russell is accused of three counts each of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. His case was sensational from the start and became more so over time – as he fled the country, landed on the U.S. Marshals Most Wanted List and was captured in Ireland after five years as a fugitive.

Defense attorneys first argued in July that media coverage had been so widespread and unfair that it had contributed to a large majority of Whitman County residents having already decided Russell was guilty.

Prosecutors argued against the motion at the time, noting other high-profile cases that had been tried in their home counties. And Frazier ruled that he should first attempt to seat a jury in Whitman County, saying he believed residents could set aside any preconceptions and do the duty of a juror.

But he also included several caveats in that ruling. Melanie Tratnik, an assistant attorney general, said Monday that it was in reading those caveats later that prosecutors decided there might be problems seating a jury – or that it might become a legitimate issue for appeal. Frazier talked about how frequently people approached him to talk about the case or ask questions, and said he knew that it could be difficult to select a jury.

Tratnik quoted Frazier saying at that hearing, “I have great concern about picking that jury.”

Prosecutors sought to have the trial moved to Benton County, and defense attorneys suggested Skagit or King counties. Frazier said he would have preferred to move it to Clark County, but the courts there couldn’t accommodate it so he was leaning toward neighboring Cowlitz County.