Indeed, Farnsworth never wanted to go before a judge "with egg on my face," he said. As a devout member of the Mormon Church, he regularly advised his clients that it was better to work things out in counseling rather than have the marriage go asunder.
Farnsworth had little to gain and everything to lose had it been his inclination to include an untrue statement. One glance at the Pearce petition, and the knowledge that Russ was but a lowly sheriff's deputy back then, quickly informs that there was no big money at stake. Why would a lawyer risk his practice for a routine divorce filing?
Republican strategist Nathan Sproul's anti-Pearce attack fliers.
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Mrs. Pearce's statement is too specific and does not suggest having been invented by someone else. It bears repeating here:
"Further, the husband, RUSSELL KEITH PEARCE, is possessed of a violent temper, and has from time to time hit and shoved the wife, the last time being on February 3 [1980], when he grabbed the wife by the throat and threw her down."
Did Mrs. Pearce commit perjury when she made this accusation? Or is she now simply trying to protect her husband? The latter would be understandable.
"I never filed a petition, ever, where I didn't sit down with a client," explained Farnsworth, "go through the petition, and make sure that they understood they were signing it under oath, on pains of perjury, and that everything contained in the petition was what they told me and was true."
If Roberts and the rest are unconcerned with Pearce's temper in 1980 and what it might say about the man now, they might at least show some curiosity about the judge Pearce is badmouthing left and right.
Finally, The Bird has also acquired from the Mesa Police Department an incident report from 1974 detailing how Russell Pearce busted down a door to get to his then-estranged first wife (not LuAnne, who is his second wife). According to the apartment manager where the deed allegedly went down, Pearce was trying to catch his wife with another man. Pearce accused his first wife of plying an underage lover with beer.
"[His first wife] said she went to bed and went to sleep," states the report. "She said that she heard a noise, got up, and went into the living room. At this point, Russell came crashing through the front door."
Does something that happened so long ago matter? Well, in the opinion of this avian, yes, because it tends to back up LuAnne's 1980 contention that her husband was "possessed of a violent temper." And since this is a police report, there's no attorney on whom to lay the blame.
