Russell Yates misses jury duty to make talk show circuit

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (a.k.a. "Startle-Gram") ^ | March 19, 2002 | Star-Telegram Staff (N/A)

[MeekOneGOP]

	Posted on Tue, Mar. 19, 2002
	Russell Yates misses jury duty to make talk show circuit HOUSTON - After weeks of attending his wife's capital murder trial, Russell Yates was absent on the one day he was legally obligated to be at the Harris County Courthouse for another purpose. Yates was a no-show for jury duty on Monday. He went to New York City instead to appear on NBC's "Today" show in the morning, then flew cross-country for an interview on "Larry King Live" in the evening. In so doing, Yates missed his wife's formal sentencing Monday morning and his 12:15 p.m. jury call. "We saw him all over TV the last day or so, so we know he's preoccupied," said Harris County District Clerk Charles Bacarisse, whose office oversees the jury selection process. "Sadly, a lot of citizens in our county miss jury duty," he said. "It's always unfortunate, but in this case it's unfortunate and ironic. It's completely bizarre." Andrea Yates, convicted of capital murder, was sentenced Monday to two concurrent life prison terms for drowning three of her five children on June 20. Yates, contacted in Los Angeles as he prepared for the King show, told the Houston Chronicle he remembered seeing a jury summons but it slipped his mind. Until Monday, he had been a courthouse regular for months. His wife's trial began in full on Feb. 18 after weeks of jury selection. Bacarisse said Yates, like any citizen who misses jury duty, can call the county and get a date reset. Yates asked the Chronicle for Bacarisse's phone number Monday. © 2001 startelegram and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.dfw.com

[AppyPappy]

R. Yates played his wife into mental illness

Oh so she was just the helpless little girl who couldn't make a decision on her own. Please. That mentality ended decades ago. She could have left anytime she wanted. This whole "poor little helpless girl" stuff is silly. She was an adult. A crazy one but one nonetheless. Even her family didn't help her.

[AppyPappy]

If that were the murderer of your child on trial, who would you want on the jury?

[RedWhiteBlue]

Well, you know, the world always revolves around a narcissist.

[RedWhiteBlue]

In Texas, the pool is chosen out of anyone with a driver's license. (Up until recently the jury pools were chosen from registered voters, but that is a subject worthy of a separate discussion). Nobody actually "chooses" you -- your number just comes up eventually and randomly if you are otherwise qualified (no felonies, etc.). And his summons in no way meant that he was being asked to serve on a jury -- only that he was in a pool of people that might get chosen for a jury. Given his specific circumstances, all he had to do was make one phone call -- the instructions for doing so are clearly spelled out on the notice -- and he would have been exused from appearing. He just doesn't think the rules apply to him. How arrogant.

[cajungirl]

Surely you will admit she was a pretty frail vessel to "walk out when she wanted" after five pregnancies, two psychotic episodes, three hospitilizations, encounters with jezebel pronouncing fanatic preachers, a control freak unemotional husband and a Dr. by name of Sayeed who took her off antipsychotics, homeschooling, moving from home to trailor to bus back to small home while helping her mom, who couldn't make court monday cause of a tv appearance leaving daughter to get formal sentencing without a single family member there, care for dying altzheimers Dad. All the while losing weight, saying little, staring into space, stinking and hallucinating. If you can't see that she is not the kind of woman who walks out, then you have no heart.Rusty Yates is a cold man, that much is very evident.

[AppyPappy]

So we need to step into marriages and save women if we think they are fragile? That would go over well. Where was her family?

[Inkie]

He could at least have been there to support his wife as she formally receives a fate worse than death (deserved, IMHO) -- 40 years in solitary confinement 23 hours a day in an 8 x 10 cell. If she wasn't insane before, she will be now.

I heard that when she walked in, she looked over to the the spots where good old Rusty and all her relatives had sat throughout the trial and saw strangers there. So she was really all alone as the reality hit home. While I make zero excuses for her actions -- premeditated and known to be wrong -- her husband contributed to the situation and, at the very least, should have been there to humbly be at her side. What a scum, basking in the glory of the Today Show so he could whine to the NBC-liberal audience about how the system done him and Andrea wrong.

[hopespringseternal]

What a pig.

[cajungirl]

Appy, you are purposely distorting what I said and you know it very well. You got a burr under your saddle or what? Who suggested any stepping into marriage for frail women?

[FreePaul]

My sympathies on your jury duty. As bad as it is now it is much better than it was fifty years ago. They used to have a bailiff standing outside the jury room to stop the rare black who had a jury summons with "you don't want to be on a jury do you?". Seemed to work every time. You also had to report on Monday and spend the whole week there unless you got put on a jury. Inside the jury assembly room there were only hard benches and a crazy bailiff who wouldn't let your read because you had to listen to him read his bible and preach. Of course then you could park downtown all day for seventy five cents or a dollar. You could get lunch for a dollar. Your jury pay went farther then.

[cajungirl]

Ditto INkie. When she was alone for that it must have been so horrid. I cannot believe not a single family member was there. And Rusty, he is glowing and oozing and eyes sparkling,,must be getting hit on by masochistic women already and I'll bet he has hired a good ole tort lawyer. He's gonna be rich!! He's gonna give speeches in churches!! He's gonna get a new woman, a better woman, a woman who will have six kids and wait on his honor hand and foot!! He's da man right now. Pig.

[FreePaul]

He's gonna get a new woman,

Hard to imagine but I'll bet the line is already forming.

[irgbar-man]

Some dingbat called in all weepy because of her bipolar illness and he positively oozed with sympathy and direct eye contact with the camera. Me thinks he was thinking "another Andrea, now what can I do to help"..

God help up all, it's Bubba II - and he's looking to reproduce!

[MeekOneGOP]

LOL! See #11........

[Lady Jag]

An aside after reading 30-odd posts here, when Andrea looked around the courtroom at her formal sentencing yesterday and saw that her "devoted" husband wasn't there, my bet is she was not surprised.

[NordP]

"Considering his comments and lack of personal accountability for the tragedy in his family I'm glad he's not on a jury. He doesn't have the sense to serve on one."

You are so RIGHT, Kozak!

[NordP]

"Do you suppose he is the kind of juror they had to settle for in the OJ trial?"

DEFINITELY!

---that and if he lived where he feared for his life if he made the "wrong decision."

[a history buff]

With his baggage, he'll never be put onto any jury for the next few decades.

[xJones]

And Rusty, he is glowing and oozing and eyes sparkling,,must be getting hit on by masochistic women already and I'll bet he has hired a good ole tort lawyer. He's gonna be rich!! He's gonna give speeches in churches!! He's gonna get a new woman, a better woman, a woman who will have six kids and wait on his honor hand and foot!! He's da man right now. Pig.

Sickening, isn't it? I keep wondering about his feelings for his five dead children. For most of us, the loss of one child would be devastating. All your children at once? And he can still live in that house? Anyone else would still be in shell-shock, lost in memories and self-recriminations, you'd think. But that's ridiculous, Rusty and his wife are both nuts and you can't expect anything resembling decent behavior. BTW, have you seen his website? Yates

[AppyPappy]

If you can't see that she is not the kind of woman who walks out

You said it, not me. She could have walked out. She willingly stayed.