Russell father accused of rape
The former director of the criminal justice program at Washington State University has resigned from Arkansas State University amid allegations by a female student that she was drugged and raped.
The professor, Gregory D. Russell, is the father of a man accused in a drunken-driving triple fatal that is pending on the Palouse. Russell’s wife, a fellow Arkansas State University criminal justice professor, also resigned June 1 amid the rape allegations.
Russell is the father of Frederick Russell, who fled the country to avoid trial for vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of three WSU classmates.
It was one of Gregory Russell’s WSU graduate students who drove the younger Russell to Canada in 2001. From there, Frederick Russell fled to Ireland, where he was arrested after four years.
He was extradited last year, and his trial has been set for later this year.
Prosecutors allege that Frederick Russell was drunk, driving 90 mph and trying to pass on the Moscow-Pullman highway when he crashed into three other cars.
According to 2001 news accounts, Gregory Russell was not yet married to Ellen Lemley at the time of the drunken-driving collision. But she drove Gregory Russell to the hospital to see his son that night.
In Arkansas, Gregory Russell and Lemley resigned over allegations stemming from an April 19 incident, the Sun newspaper of Jonesboro reported Thursday.
The 25-year-old Arkansas State University student, whom the Sun didn’t identify, alleges that Russell and Lemley invited her to sit with them at a Jonesboro restaurant, where she blacked out. She woke up naked and bloody at the couple’s home, she alleges.
Russell told the Sun on Wednesday that “everything that happened was consensual. People were making out.”
According to the Sun’s report on Thursday, the student contends that Russell later began leaving messages on her voice mail saying he loved her. Lemley also left messages saying “she really likes me” and “wants me to be with her husband,” according to the woman.
The woman provided police with a cassette tape that allegedly contains the messages, the Sun reported.
Arkansas State University wouldn’t discuss the matter with the Sun, but the woman’s attorney wrote in court documents that the university investigated and was ready to fire Russell and Lemley when they resigned.