Attempted murder suspect skips out on his trial date

A Tulsa woman who's waited more than a year for justice, must wait a while longer, because the man accused of beating her nearly to death, didn't show up for the trial. <br><br>News on 6 crime

Wednesday, September 10th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A Tulsa woman who's waited more than a year for justice, must wait a while longer, because the man accused of beating her nearly to death, didn't show up for the trial.

News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright digs into the story to see what happened.

Last July, Rose Price says her boyfriend kept her locked inside his house for hours, beating her with a baseball bat, a chair and a flashlight. "Kicked me under the desk and kicked and kicked and kicked."

Price says her boyfriend tied her hands, tried to smother her with a pillow. She says she believed she was going to die. â€œHe choked me until I passed out. When I came to, he had a big sheet of plastic on the floor and he was going to wrap me in the plastic.â€

Rose says she did eventually escape and got help. Since then, she's had a protective order against 51 year old Arick Anderson and the state charged him with 10 counts including kidnapping, pointing a gun and assault. When the trial was supposed to begin on Monday, Anderson, who's out on bond, wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, didn't show up.

When Anderson didn't show up the judge's notes show she called for a bench warrant and for him to be held without bond. Two days later, his attorney still didn't know where he was.

I called the people who monitor the electronic bracelet and they said he was accounted for. I then called his bail bondsman and he said he could find Anderson and 10 minutes later, I was talking to Anderson on the phone.

He told me he didn't intentionally skip out on his court date. That he didn't know his trial was to begin on Monday. However, the minutes from the case show the judge told Anderson in person back in March that his trial was on September 8th.

Price says she's been ready and is still ready to have their day in court. Lori Fullbright talked to Anderson's attorney Wednesday, who says they are not trying to avoid a trial, this was just a misunderstanding.

They plan to talk to the judge about setting a new trial date within 30 days. He says Anderson disputes most, if not all of Price's allegations.