My guess is because she looks so much like a man, she will be prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced, albeit without quite the same aggressiveness, vilification, and harsh sentencing she would receive were it a penis between her legs instead of a vagina.

Along with the level of abuse and her manly appearance, what also distinguishes her from your typical child support whore is that she was abusing children to get taxpayer money instead of from a father or two or three. Just like paternity fraud is rewarded when perpetrated against a man but prosecuted when it is to get taxpayer money, such as military benefits and social security, abusing children for taxpayer money will be treated more harshly than if it were simply the earnings of a particular male who had his children taken away for her financial empowerment.

So, assuming the facts are roughly as alleged, my guess is Judith Leekin might just as well be male. Just don’t hold your breath awaiting massive publicity of the fact that most child abusers are in fact female.

As my screen name suggests, I was deceived by the same cult leader Rusty was infatuated with at one time. However, that is not exactly why Rusty deserves his portion of blame for why his wife went filicidal with their kids. But when a man patterns his life after a pathological nut, it’s not surprising to me at all that his life would bear fruit commensurate to a life belonging to a pathological nut.

Where Rusty went wrong is clear. He was so infatuated with the idea of having a large family that he neglected all the warnings from friends, family and medical authority regarding Andrea’s health and how she endangered the safety of her children. Although no one suspected Andrea would intentionally become violent with her children, Rusty was warned time and time again, not to allow his wife to drive, to take her to get psychiatric attention, and not to leave Andrea unsupervised. Indeed, his negligence to follow doctor’s orders not only set up her final postpartum swing that led to her psychosis, but he left her alone providing her with the opportunity to kill the children.

Dr. Starbranch specifically warned him that more pregnancies would guarantee future psychotic depression, and Dr. Saeed questioned Rusty in order to assure someone was with her around the clock. Andrea’s mother warned him not to leave the kids alone with her because she nearly accidentally choked her infant Mary feeding her solid food when she had no teeth yet. It was Rusty’s stated belief that all depressed people needed was a “swift kick in the pants” to get motivated, that led him to force Andrea to be alone with the kids so that she would not become dependent on those taking up her slack.

People can be really stupid, but where it becomes criminal, in my mind at least, is when people deny their blatant irresponsibility, and Rusty is a seriously committed denier. A close lady friend of his mentioned this to Suzanne O’Malley in the book about Andrea Yates.

Rusty knew Andrea was suicidal the last time she was ill. Remarkably, he defends himself saying if he knew she was a danger to the kids, he would have never gotten Andrea pregnant again. You would think a caring man would regard his wife with equal concern. To him it would seem, she was just a means to an end, a prop in a fairy tale play catering to his fantasy.

Although Rusty promised Dr. Starbranch the next time Andrea became ill, he would “nip it in the bud,” he neglected her descent into depression for weeks, even to the point she was completely incapacitated before he and her brother forcefully took her to the hospital in 2001. Dr. Albritton, the attending physician on duty when Andrea was finally brought in to her ward, was shocked at the level she was allowed to descend before she was given medical attention. Rusty seems to think he is excused from neglecting her because her descent was very rapid. (??)

Rusty can be quite a charmer with the ladies it would seem. He did a good job on Suzanne O’Malley who wrote “Are You Alone?” about the Andrea Yates tragedy. To her credit, she did get to a lot of details that balanced the accusations of Rusty’s worst detractors, but she seemed to overlook or miss the crucial details of how seriously to blame Rusty was for this tragedy. It’s my opinion as well as the opinion of Andrea’s mother that Rusty used O’Malley to create a facade covering up his true nature. When asked what might be holding back Rusty from divorcing Andrea, her mother responded, “he’s waiting for you to finish your book.”

I agree. That’s exactly the way it happened.

I don’t think anyone should be vilified in torch, shovel and pitchfork fashion. But I also don’t believe that once the facts come to light, such a person should be allowed to get away with their portion of responsibility.

The irrationality of mob mentality unchecked is truly outrageous. It doesn’t justify anyone either, though.

That’s all.

How about giving us a hard question.