JULY 2019: Please visit our new case website at darrenrussellcase.com
|
Listen to the message he left on our voice mail just hours
before his murder. He knew he was going to die ... His last words home were "I'm scared. I want to get out of here. I've never been this scared in my life."
|
... and this is him a few hours after his last call to us.
What's wrong with this picture? Click it and decide for yourself.
J
An American teacher killed in a foreign land ... the facts of which our government has spent a lot of time and money to conceal. His death was no accident and top U.S. officials know this better than anyone else. That's why they don't want the truth to come out, lest they be seen for who they really are.
Fourteen years later, we're still fighting our own government to get answers and we're not about to quit
My son, a degreed and credentialed English teacher, was murdered in China on April 14, 2005. He had been teaching in an English-language school that he discovered to be operating illegally.
In the midst of a heated and ongoing work-permit-visa legal dispute with his illegal employer, he quit and was immediately forced out of the school-owned apartment and placed in a hotel, where he was robbed of his passport and money. After the robbery, he contacted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou for assistance. Over a frantic period of four days after the robbery and until his killing, I contacted the consulate too, along with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing several times for assistance on his behalf. Our calls for help were all but slacked off.
What they could have done, they didn't. What information they could have come forth with after my son's murder they've purposefully withheld. In fighting to get the truth, we sued in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act to have records released. Our litigation would go on for nearly five years before the government would spend a lot of time and money in an unrelenting effort to deliberately thwart the course of justice. Through crass procedural maneuvering, postponements, continuances and last-minute delays, the U.S. Justice Department made every effort to conceal the truth by overwhelming our grieving family with a cynical, exhausting paper fight when all they had to do -- and can do still -- is simply release every record they have. On top of everything, they showed -- and continue to show -- a reckless disregard for the truth and the law they have been sworn to uphold.
If it really was an accident, what could there be to hide?
My son's murder, which occurred within days of contacting the consulate after being robbed, was officially reported as a pedestrian-truck accident. Because of his rocky relationship with the owner of the illegal school, I did not believe the official version of events then and immediately demanded answers. What followed from the second week of April 2005 and continues to the present remains an indefensible, tangled web of lies purposed toward hiding embarrassing and malfeasant truths.
To cover their own laziness and bungling, they put out a bad cover story they're still stuck in.
There are two crimes here, seemingly unrelated and now forever welded to each other: A local murder driven by commercial thuggery in a Chinese city of 17 million people, and a concealment of the facts of what really happened before and after so arrogant U.S. officials with big paychecks, prime career paths and fat retirements wouldn't find themselves embarrassed for their failure to assist one of their own citizens and for their illegal acts in trying to cover it up. There were larger factors in play, we'd discover, and our new case website will put facts to context to make clear just how and why the U.S. government would go to any length to extinguish the truth.
Just weeks after my son's killing, as American authorities encouraged me to have my son's body cremated, an official in the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou told me, "Be lucky you got your son's body back. Put this behind you and move on."
Fourteen years later, I am still unable to "move on" in any way because virtually every important question remains unanswered.
Until I get them, I will continue to press for answers. And regardless of the outcome of our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, I will continue to work to effect positive changes so nothing like this ever happens to anyone else or their family. We have spent the past fourteen years trying to get answers, from having my son's body exhumed and autopsied to pressing the government through every lawful means available.
What happened to our son is unconscionable. What his own government has done to conceal it is unthinkable and un-American in its every essence. What our family is trying to do about it is what we think you and your family would do too.
Thank you for taking time to read our site. We will not stop until justice is done and everyone is held to full account.
Maxine B. Russell
June 2019
Russell v. United States Department of State et. al.
(Case No. CV09-06050 PSG)
An American teacher killed in a foreign land ... the facts of which our government has spent a lot of time and money to conceal. His death was no accident and top U.S. officials know this better than anyone else. That's why they don't want the truth to come out, lest they be seen for who they really are.
Fourteen years later, we're still fighting our own government to get answers and we're not about to quit
My son, a degreed and credentialed English teacher, was murdered in China on April 14, 2005. He had been teaching in an English-language school that he discovered to be operating illegally.
In the midst of a heated and ongoing work-permit-visa legal dispute with his illegal employer, he quit and was immediately forced out of the school-owned apartment and placed in a hotel, where he was robbed of his passport and money. After the robbery, he contacted the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou for assistance. Over a frantic period of four days after the robbery and until his killing, I contacted the consulate too, along with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing several times for assistance on his behalf. Our calls for help were all but slacked off.
What they could have done, they didn't. What information they could have come forth with after my son's murder they've purposefully withheld. In fighting to get the truth, we sued in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act to have records released. Our litigation would go on for nearly five years before the government would spend a lot of time and money in an unrelenting effort to deliberately thwart the course of justice. Through crass procedural maneuvering, postponements, continuances and last-minute delays, the U.S. Justice Department made every effort to conceal the truth by overwhelming our grieving family with a cynical, exhausting paper fight when all they had to do -- and can do still -- is simply release every record they have. On top of everything, they showed -- and continue to show -- a reckless disregard for the truth and the law they have been sworn to uphold.
If it really was an accident, what could there be to hide?
My son's murder, which occurred within days of contacting the consulate after being robbed, was officially reported as a pedestrian-truck accident. Because of his rocky relationship with the owner of the illegal school, I did not believe the official version of events then and immediately demanded answers. What followed from the second week of April 2005 and continues to the present remains an indefensible, tangled web of lies purposed toward hiding embarrassing and malfeasant truths.
To cover their own laziness and bungling, they put out a bad cover story they're still stuck in.
There are two crimes here, seemingly unrelated and now forever welded to each other: A local murder driven by commercial thuggery in a Chinese city of 17 million people, and a concealment of the facts of what really happened before and after so arrogant U.S. officials with big paychecks, prime career paths and fat retirements wouldn't find themselves embarrassed for their failure to assist one of their own citizens and for their illegal acts in trying to cover it up. There were larger factors in play, we'd discover, and our new case website will put facts to context to make clear just how and why the U.S. government would go to any length to extinguish the truth.
Just weeks after my son's killing, as American authorities encouraged me to have my son's body cremated, an official in the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou told me, "Be lucky you got your son's body back. Put this behind you and move on."
Fourteen years later, I am still unable to "move on" in any way because virtually every important question remains unanswered.
Until I get them, I will continue to press for answers. And regardless of the outcome of our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, I will continue to work to effect positive changes so nothing like this ever happens to anyone else or their family. We have spent the past fourteen years trying to get answers, from having my son's body exhumed and autopsied to pressing the government through every lawful means available.
What happened to our son is unconscionable. What his own government has done to conceal it is unthinkable and un-American in its every essence. What our family is trying to do about it is what we think you and your family would do too.
Thank you for taking time to read our site. We will not stop until justice is done and everyone is held to full account.
Maxine B. Russell
June 2019
Russell v. United States Department of State et. al.
(Case No. CV09-06050 PSG)
To read the dozens of filings in this case, click here to go to the government's online case record service.
If it really was a truck-pedestrian accident, then why won't our own government release its records?
If it really was a truck-pedestrian accident, then why won't our own government release its records?
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
NO LIE CHANGES THE TRUTH.
NO LIE CHANGES THE TRUTH.
Contact your U.S. Representative and Senator today! Urge them to support true reform of the
Freedom of Information Act and all legislation that better assists, serves and protects Americans abroad.
It's up to us to make Congress act. We can't wait for them to do something, can we?
Freedom of Information Act and all legislation that better assists, serves and protects Americans abroad.
It's up to us to make Congress act. We can't wait for them to do something, can we?