Divorce of Andrea and Russell Yates finalized

Houston Chronicle ^ | March 17, 2005 | ROMA KHANNA

[PAR35]

A Harris County judge today gave final approval for Rusty Yates' divorce from his wife, Andrea, who drowned their five children in a bathtub at their Clear Lake-area home in 2001.

Under the terms of the uncontested divorce, Andrea Yates will be given the cemetery plot closest to the graves of her five children. Rusty Yates also agreed to give her $7,000 to pay bills, in addition to half of his retirement benefits from NASA.

{snip}

Salinsky declined to say why his client sought a divorce, but he did say Yates is not currently in another relationship.

[Kay Syrah]

Are you familiar with "People of the Lie" by M. Scott Peck?
It is basically a psychological study of the character of evil, that is quite easily hidden under the cloak of reasonableness and good intentions. It is quite simply an analysis of the nature of evil that can disguise its true intent while seeking very destructive ends. Reminds me of Othello. The real villain is the manipulative, and thoroughly evil Iago.

But the point here is, that Yates, resonates at least with me as one of those people. There are no particular presenting problems with him except a lack of affect, and the strange compulsion to breed his wife into the ground. Now she was not competent to have more children, yet he continued to make more babies with her after she was clearly mentally unstable.

She did the deed, and the responsibility is ultimately hers, but Yates did manage to keep her in the worst possible situation for her stability...pregnant. I think he was in fact, acting on some deep need to destroy something and it backfired on him. Or at the very least, he was operating on his own ego needs. But I don't think his evil is apparent to himself, or those who know him, and defend him. But I think that is exactly what Peck is talking about in his book.

[cherry]

Rusty is not a "flake".....he's a NASA engineer, nothing to sneer about....

Sorriful situation for all.....

I hope God gives Rusty the strength to move on, and I hope God gives Andrea some peace in her very twisted mind......

[HouTom]

Well, in a community property state, income earned by one spouse is viewed as belonging to both spouses equally. Therefore, the courts have ruled that retirement benefits, which are viewed as earned income that becomes payable in a future date, belong equally to the spouses. In essence the family court judge gave her what every spouse gets. I guess the husband could have argued that she killed his children and she shouldn't get anything, but he didn't, therefore, the matter was handled routinely by the court.