Clere Ruitt



Clere Ruitt was an attorney who co-represented Duke Leto Atreides I during his Trial by Forfeiture in 10,156 AG. As well as with her co-judicant Bruda Viol, she was from the continent of Ellaca on the planet Ecaz. Ruitt and Viol had been recommended by the exiled Ixian ambassador, Cammur Pilru, to represent Leto during this life and death struggle.

It had been believed that the newly ascended Duke had ordered his Atreides vessel to fire upon a Bene Tleilax ship inside of a Guild heighliner. In actuality, House Harkonnen had fired the two blasts from their secret no-ship, and destroyed the Tleilaxu craft.

Immediately, most of the spacecraft that witnessed the horrifying event assumed the offending shots had come from House Atreides, since the invisible Harkonnen craft had fired from just under the Atreides space-faring vessel. Within minutes Leto had to turn on his ship's shields, to avoid being fired upon from the other Great Housess starships. Soon afterwards, the guiding Navigator of the heighliner demanded to know why the shield was on, as it was interfering with the Guild-crafts' Holtzman engine. Leto explained the situation, and demanded a full Trial by Forfetiure.

Once Leto arrived on Kaitain for the Trial he and House Atreides Security Chief Thufir Hawat met Ruitt and her compatriot. A few weeks later, when the Landsraad Trial convened, it was headed up by Lord Bain O'Garee of the planet Hagal. Also on the tribunal were Baron Terkillian Sor of IV Anbus, Duke Prad Vidal of Ecaz, Count Anton Miche, and Rincon of House Fazeel. When Leto spoke of each of the men, and Ruitt and Viol were discussing their propensity to be bribed, Leto wondered at the decline of standards in the Imperium. This caused Ruitt and her co-lawyer to be amused at Leto's naievte'. As the Trial progressed; Leto, Ruitt, and Viol, were unable to prove that his ship had not fired the shots upon the Tleilaxu vessel. Just as the O'Garee was ready to pronounce sentence upon the teenage Duke, his distaff cousin Crown Prince Shaddam Corrino IV strode into the Landsraad Chamber, and spoke a hearty defense of not only Leto, but of the thousands of years lineage of House Atreides. He talked of how both of the Tleilaxu starships could have been destroyed by debris, and at the end of the speech, he gave Leto a token of affection, the Corrino heirloom, the Emperor's Blade. Shaddam then demanded that the Trial end with Leto's acquittal, over the vehement protests of the Tleilaxu. O'Garee and the rest of the tribunal wished to be on the future Emperor's "good side", and promptly released Leto, and proclaimed him innocent.

Nothing else is known of the career or life of Clere Ruitt.