http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0322-02.htmPublished on Friday, March 22, 2002 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Rusty Yates is Culpable, Too
Father's Bizarre, Domineering Actions Played a Role in Children's Deaths
by Barbara Robinson
Who is responsible for the death of Noah, John, Paul, Luke and Mary Yates? A jury unanimously voted Andrea Pia Kennedy Yates, a registered nurse, guilty of killing her children. Interviewed after the verdict, some of the jury members have said her husband should have been on trial instead of Andrea.
OK, so the demeanor of Russell (Rusty) Yates -- all-American, Eagle Scout -- didn't persuade me. I couldn't understand how a man could repeatedly impregnate a mentally ill wife and force or allow her to home-school their children. Yates exhibited a sense of arrogance as he explained why his children had to be home-schooled: "The social integration that the world claims is so essential is exactly what we need to protect our children from." So the Yates didn't integrate with their neighbors, who didn't agree with Rusty's beliefs.
Rusty Yates claims he and Andrea jointly made decisions -- including Andrea giving birth to all five children without pain control measures; Andrea abandoning her nursing career to become a homemaker; Andrea home-schooling the children; the family moving from their four-bedroom house into a 38-foot trailer and an adjacent 350-square-foot motor home.
On June 26, just six days after the Yates children's deaths, Harris County, Texas, Judge Belinda Hill imposed a gag order prohibiting Rusty and any persons who had given statements to the police and to the district attorney from discussing how Andrea got to this point. This prevented Rusty, his family and Andrea's family from speaking to the press until the trial was over.
Since the day after the trial ended, Rusty and the families have appeared on every major television network to recite their version of what happened. In his need to share the blame for the deaths of his children, Rusty asked why anyone would blame him for Andrea's condition when a doctor trained to deal with mental illness wasn't able to predict her actions.
Rusty has repeatedly shared his disgust with the medical system's handling of Andrea's case. He has asked how she could have been so ill while the medical community failed to diagnose her, treat her and protect the rest of the family from her. He plans to sue Andrea's last psychiatrist, Dr. Mohammad Saeed, who took Andrea off her medication three weeks before she killed her five children.
Andrea's family, the Kennedys, claims Rusty was not attentive enough to Andrea's mental health needs. The Kennedy family has a history of mental illness that affects several members. Time magazine has reported that Andrea's brother and sister both suffer from depression, another brother has bipolar disorder, and the father who died after years of Alzheimer's may have had depression. This family demonstrates the genetic nature of mental illness.
The jury, the prosecution and the defense agree that Andrea is severely mentally ill. Time magazine reported that she envisioned a state-sanctioned exorcism in which George W. Bush, the former governor and now president, would come to save her from the clutches of Satan. While under the influence of psychosis, a person may know right from wrong as concepts, but be utterly incapable of controlling his or her impulses or differentiating reality from delusions so vivid they are impossible to ignore.
By any reasonable standard, that makes her incompetent to stand trial. Texas criminal law on insanity as a defense is illogical and archaic and an embarrassment to a progressive society.
Our country's attitudes toward mental illness lag far behind those of other civilized countries. We execute the mentally ill, we allow mentally ill people to roam our streets without medicine, treatment or shelter. This is inhumane. We stigmatize mental illness, devoting the better part of our resources to treat physical illness and disease.
Years ago, patients joked about the 45-minute hour they spent with their psychiatrist. Today they talk about the 10-minute visit and all the medicines they are prescribed. We have fewer mental health support systems available at a time when our society faces ever greater stresses and vulnerability to mental illness is increasing.
And while Andrea and Rusty Yates have gotten a lot of publicity, remember this: At least once every three days in America, a mother kills one or more of her children.
Barbara Robinson (
brobinson@lvrj.com) is a retired attorney living in Las Vegas. Her column appears every other Friday.
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