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He started at third base for the Pepperdine baseball team from 2002 to 2005. Wearing No. 8, he hit .270 with 11 home runs and 126 RBI and was considered one of the elite defensive third basemen in the West Coast Conference during his four seasons as a Wave. He consistently worked to better himself at the game as well as provide a smile for anyone lucky enough to cross paths with him. He was a man of conviction - devoted to God, devoted to his family and devoted to finding meaning in every second of his life. He was Patrick Rooney.
“I knew Pat not as a friend, not as a baseball player, not as a man, a father, nor a son ... I knew Pat as all of those,” wrote Ryan Beglin, a friend and former teammate, in an e-mail. “And I will say, he was the best guy you will ever meet at filling all of those roles.”
Patrick was 26 when the single-engine plane his father, Bill, was piloting crashed near Steamboat Springs, Colo., taking the lives of both men on the morning of Sunday, Jan. 11. Bill, 54, had reportedly flown the plane out of Yampa Valley Regional Airport around 10 a.m. before it crashed one mile north of the runway.
As the Waves' regular third baseman for four years, Patrick earned a reputation of consistency and dependability on the diamond and could always be counted on to deliver exactly what was necessary to pick his team up during games.
“He would be able to focus on exactly what needed to be done,” Beglin said. “No matter what the question was, a late inning hit we desperately needed, an amazing play at third base or just a look in his eyes that said 'We are going to do this' ... Pat was the answer.”
In the clubhouse, Patrick kept spirits high and attitudes motivated with a perpetual aura of optimism and resilient inspiration.
Friend and former teammate Cory Brightwell, who was a sophomore when Patrick was a freshman, said he could not help but take the younger player under his wing after witnessing the passion he had for baseball and life in general.
“As a teammate, he was somebody you could always count on to be upbeat no matter what the circumstances were,” Brightwell said. “He would never get down on you. He'd always be there to support you and back you up when you weren't carrying your load.”
But Patrick's enthusiasm went far beyond the reaches of Eddy D. Field Stadium. He was known for being someone who loved to smile and who had a knack for making others smile along with him.
Beglin, who played right field and designated hitter for Pepperdine from 2004 to 2005, recalled how quickly Patrick and he were drawn together as friends.
“I first met Patrick in 2004, in the weight room at Pepperdine,” Beglin said. “I had just transferred to the school and was going down to workout. Although neither one of us had baseball gear on, we both knew that we played.
“Let me say that it took about five minutes for me to warm up to Pat because he was one of those guys. The type who seemed to always be smiling, somehow even when lifting weights.”
According to Head Coach Steve Rodriguez, Patrick was one of the university's most active alums, as he would return to Malibu for every Pepperdine baseball alumni event and fundraiser, demonstrating the sense of commitment he felt toward his alma mater and the relationships he developed there.
“If my son turns out to be the person Patrick Rooney was, I would consider myself a lucky father,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said Patrick, who is survived by his wife, Erynn, 1-year-old son, Will, mother, Debi, and brothers, Sean and Colin, was deeply committed to his family, and “family first” is a recurring theme within the hearts and minds of all the Rooneys.
“Obviously it's a huge tragedy for the family, but when you talk to them, it's an amazing experience and an enlightenment to my own life,” Rodriguez said. “They're amazing people and there's no doubt in my mind that they will grow even closer as a family and be even stronger for it.”
The abundant love Patrick had for his family was illustrated by an incident that took place in November, during the baseball program's annual Alumni Weekend.
“During [last] year's Alumni Weekend, Patrick and Erynn and several other people went to dinner at Wood Ranch,” Beglin said. “He had his son, Will, sitting on his lap and Will really wanted to see what a lemon tasted like. So Pat warned him, but let him have it.
“The look on Will's face was hysterical and everyone started laughing. When Will turned to look at Pat he had a sad face. Pat kissed him and said, 'I told you so.' Then Pat turned to Erynn and gave an 'oops!' face. That was Pat as a man, father and husband - one in a million.”
Sean, Patrick's older brother, plays catcher in the Washington Nationals minor league system. The Nationals drafted younger brother Colin last year after he played two seasons at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif., but he opted to follow in Patrick's footsteps and transferred to Pepperdine before the 2008-2009 academic year.
Colin, a junior, is ready to assume third base, the position Patrick manned for four years. But that's not the only way Colin will carry on his brother's legacy-he will also be wearing No. 8, the same number that was stitched on Patrick's jersey during his 242 games as a Pepperdine Wave. Senior infielder Bryce Mendonca, who previously donned No. 8, will now wear No. 3.
A memorial service in honor of Bill and Patrick Rooney is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, Calif.
“He lived a very blessed life and he did not take an ounce of it for granted,” Brightwell said. “He enjoyed it. He lived every second of it to the fullest. Because of that we were all blessed to be around him.”
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Article #2: Administration axes athletic programs
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At 1:55 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, the day before spring break, freshman swimmer Joanne Perry and her teammates received unsettling e-mails out of the blue from the Department of Athletics. The athletes were informed that Pepperdine had terminated the women's swimming and diving program.
"I really didn't know what to think," Perry said. "All of us have been swimming since we were little kids … This is a huge reason that most of us came to this school, just for the swim team. The fact that they told us it's over, you're finished - it was a complete shock."
That same afternoon, men's track Head Coach Robert Radnoti informed his runners that their program had also been cut.
"We had practice at 2:15 like every other day, but this day [Radnoti] called a team meeting," said sophomore Conrad Wozniak. "He read us the e-mail that the athletic department had sent to the swim coach and him. And he explained that we were going to be no more next season."
The elimination of two NCAA Division 1 sports programs was part of a university-wide initiative to reduce expenses and increase financial efficiency. According to Athletics Director John Watson, men's track was discontinued to accommodate the regulations of Title IX.
Men's track will be terminated as a university-sponsored sport following the 2008-2009 academic year. However, for women's swimming and diving, the Feb. 27 announcement sparked a movement by friends and family of the team to provide the funding necessary to complete an additional season. President Andrew K. Benton also provided the program with some financial assistance on a one-time basis, Watson said.
This extension will allow more time for recruits and current team members to decide whether or not they will remain at Pepperdine. It will also give next year's seniors the opportunity to finish out their collegiate careers at Pepperdine as athletes.
However, for the swimming and diving team to compete beyond the 2009-2010 academic year would require a $10 million endowment, which Watson said is unlikely to be accomplished.
According to the e-mail sent to the swimming and diving team on Feb. 27, the administration had asked each department to reallocate 10 percent of its budget. Watson said he could either cut entire teams or take money away from each program, a decision he thought would "weaken the tradition that we have from all the other sports."
But Perry said the reasoning, no matter how airtight, did not justify the manner in which the university delivered the news to her and her teammates, affirming they deserved a more personal and thorough explanation for the cut. The e-mail expressed the athletic department's remorse and provided a summary of the financial pressures that forced the school to discontinue the programs.
"We as athletes sacrifice a lot of time for this sport and we represent the school in a really good way," Perry said. "I feel they at least owe us to tell us in a better way than through an e-mail. They could have sat us down and explained to us the reasons why, and not just told us [the program] is canceled."
Perry said the e-mail caught her completely off-guard and that even her head coach, Nick Rodionoff, had no idea that the termination of the team was a remote possibility.
The team wrapped up its 2008-2009 season with a third place finish at the Pacific Coast Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Beach, Calif., six days before the Feb. 27 announcement. Following the tournament, Rodionoff was named PCSC Coach of the Year for the second time in his nine years as the team's coach.
"It was crazy to go from such a high in conference and get this news and our world flipped upside down," Perry said.
According to Watson, the NCAA regulates that all Division 1 schools have a minimum of 14 sports programs, and Pepperdine currently has 16. Watson said the department could only eliminate teams existing outside the school's primary conference affiliation, the West Coast Conference, leaving men's and women's track, women's swimming and diving, men's water polo and men's volleyball as the only options.
"We have national championships in two of those sports (men's water polo and men's volleyball)," Watson said. "Men's and women's track is an extension of our cross country program. The track portion of that does not realize significant financial savings. That's what drew us to swimming and diving."
Although he did not specifically mention Title IX, Watson said men's track was cut to "keep a balance for men's and women's participation" in athletics. The elimination of these two programs will leave the school with seven men's and seven women's sports teams following the 2009-2010 academic year.
Because track is primarily an extension of cross country, Watson said the school may allow Pepperdine's male runners to participate in track events beyond this season, although they would not officially be sponsored by the university.
"We might be able to allow them to run," Watson said. "And should they qualify for NCAA championship times, … they could in fact go forward and compete at the national level."
Members of the cut programs will continue to receive their athletic scholarships until the end of their eligibility, but the school will also assist those who opt to transfer, Watson said.
"We told them if they choose to seek to transfer somewhere else, we will expedite that process," Watson said. "If they choose to stay at Pepperdine, we will honor their scholarship as long as they were going to stay with us."
But Perry said she does not see herself remaining at Pepperdine if there is no swimming and diving team.
"Swimming is my life, and I can't imagine not doing that at school," Perry said. "I've always been an athlete; I think it would be weird not to be one."
Wonziak said that several of his teammates are transferring, even though he plans to stay at Pepperdine for the cross country program.
According to Watson, while the cuts were disappointing and challenging to him and his entire department, they were simply an inevitable reality of an ailing economy that has affected all areas of the university.
But Perry maintains the situation called for a more thoughtful and personal response from the Department of Athletics. The e-mail did not meet the expectations she had for the administration during those circumstances.
"It would be great if the students can give us support and spread it around," Perry said. "It is important for the community to be aware of what happened and how unfair and disrespectful we feel the school has been to us."
At 1:55 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, the day before spring break, freshman swimmer Joanne Perry and her teammates received unsettling e-mails out of the blue from the Department of Athletics. The athletes were informed that Pepperdine had terminated the women's swimming and diving program.
"I really didn't know what to think," Perry said. "All of us have been swimming since we were little kids … This is a huge reason that most of us came to this school, just for the swim team. The fact that they told us it's over, you're finished - it was a complete shock."
That same afternoon, men's track Head Coach Robert Radnoti informed his runners that their program had also been cut.
"We had practice at 2:15 like every other day, but this day [Radnoti] called a team meeting," said sophomore Conrad Wozniak. "He read us the e-mail that the athletic department had sent to the swim coach and him. And he explained that we were going to be no more next season."
The elimination of two NCAA Division 1 sports programs was part of a university-wide initiative to reduce expenses and increase financial efficiency. According to Athletics Director John Watson, men's track was discontinued to accommodate the regulations of Title IX.
Men's track will be terminated as a university-sponsored sport following the 2008-2009 academic year. However, for women's swimming and diving, the Feb. 27 announcement sparked a movement by friends and family of the team to provide the funding necessary to complete an additional season. President Andrew K. Benton also provided the program with some financial assistance on a one-time basis, Watson said.
This extension will allow more time for recruits and current team members to decide whether or not they will remain at Pepperdine. It will also give next year's seniors the opportunity to finish out their collegiate careers at Pepperdine as athletes.
However, for the swimming and diving team to compete beyond the 2009-2010 academic year would require a $10 million endowment, which Watson said is unlikely to be accomplished.
According to the e-mail sent to the swimming and diving team on Feb. 27, the administration had asked each department to reallocate 10 percent of its budget. Watson said he could either cut entire teams or take money away from each program, a decision he thought would "weaken the tradition that we have from all the other sports."
But Perry said the reasoning, no matter how airtight, did not justify the manner in which the university delivered the news to her and her teammates, affirming they deserved a more personal and thorough explanation for the cut. The e-mail expressed the athletic department's remorse and provided a summary of the financial pressures that forced the school to discontinue the programs.
"We as athletes sacrifice a lot of time for this sport and we represent the school in a really good way," Perry said. "I feel they at least owe us to tell us in a better way than through an e-mail. They could have sat us down and explained to us the reasons why, and not just told us [the program] is canceled."
Perry said the e-mail caught her completely off-guard and that even her head coach, Nick Rodionoff, had no idea that the termination of the team was a remote possibility.
The team wrapped up its 2008-2009 season with a third place finish at the Pacific Coast Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Beach, Calif., six days before the Feb. 27 announcement. Following the tournament, Rodionoff was named PCSC Coach of the Year for the second time in his nine years as the team's coach.
"It was crazy to go from such a high in conference and get this news and our world flipped upside down," Perry said.
According to Watson, the NCAA regulates that all Division 1 schools have a minimum of 14 sports programs, and Pepperdine currently has 16. Watson said the department could only eliminate teams existing outside the school's primary conference affiliation, the West Coast Conference, leaving men's and women's track, women's swimming and diving, men's water polo and men's volleyball as the only options.
"We have national championships in two of those sports (men's water polo and men's volleyball)," Watson said. "Men's and women's track is an extension of our cross country program. The track portion of that does not realize significant financial savings. That's what drew us to swimming and diving."
Although he did not specifically mention Title IX, Watson said men's track was cut to "keep a balance for men's and women's participation" in athletics. The elimination of these two programs will leave the school with seven men's and seven women's sports teams following the 2009-2010 academic year.
Because track is primarily an extension of cross country, Watson said the school may allow Pepperdine's male runners to participate in track events beyond this season, although they would not officially be sponsored by the university.
"We might be able to allow them to run," Watson said. "And should they qualify for NCAA championship times, … they could in fact go forward and compete at the national level."
Members of the cut programs will continue to receive their athletic scholarships until the end of their eligibility, but the school will also assist those who opt to transfer, Watson said.
"We told them if they choose to seek to transfer somewhere else, we will expedite that process," Watson said. "If they choose to stay at Pepperdine, we will honor their scholarship as long as they were going to stay with us."
But Perry said she does not see herself remaining at Pepperdine if there is no swimming and diving team.
"Swimming is my life, and I can't imagine not doing that at school," Perry said. "I've always been an athlete; I think it would be weird not to be one."
Wonziak said that several of his teammates are transferring, even though he plans to stay at Pepperdine for the cross country program.
According to Watson, while the cuts were disappointing and challenging to him and his entire department, they were simply an inevitable reality of an ailing economy that has affected all areas of the university.
But Perry maintains the situation called for a more thoughtful and personal response from the Department of Athletics. The e-mail did not meet the expectations she had for the administration during those circumstances.
"It would be great if the students can give us support and spread it around," Perry said. "It is important for the community to be aware of what happened and how unfair and disrespectful we feel the school has been to us."
Article #3: Law team aids religious refugees
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Persecuted, abused and abandoned by her family and her government, Gilda Ghanipour had just one thing left to cling to— her faith. She had converted from Islam to Christianity, a capital offense in her native Iran, and sought refuge in the United States. Without legal U.S. citizenship or immigration status, she faced deportation back to Iran, where imprisonment, further persecution and a possible death sentence awaited her.
Ghanipour had solid grounds for applying for asylum in the U.S., but she was destitute and had no means to pay for legal help. Federal legislation allows law students, under the supervision of a licensed attorney, to represent clients who cannot afford legal representation. So Ghanipour, desperate for documented protection from the Iranian government, looked to a team of Pepperdine law students for her freedom.
“She really had a well-rounded fear of persecution,” said Kelly Everett, one of the Pepperdine law students who worked on Ghanipour’s case. “The [Iranian] government … knew she was going in and out of her country and given her problems in her past. So she genuinely feared going back.”
Everett is a member of the Pepperdine School of Law’s Asylum Clinic, a special unit of aspiring lawyers who represent poverty-stricken immigrants seeking legal status in the United States. Like Ghanipour, all these clients request asylum out of fear of religious persecution abroad. By the time they have arrived at Pepperdine, the clinic is often their last hope for attaining safe haven.
“When these victims of persecution come to campus, they see the cross,” said Judge Bruce J. Einhorn, founder and director of the Asylum Clinic. “They sit down with kind people who … listen to them respectfully. It’s transformative. Some of these people have never known kindness in their whole lives. And the first time they know it is here, at Pepperdine.”
The clinic does not only take in clients who are Christian converts. Any refugee who has been persecuted for his or her religion—whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Islam or another belief system—is eligible for representation. The clients, as well as the students in the clinic, come from a number of different religious and cultural backgrounds.
“Justice doesn’t have one ethnicity, one color, or one creed,” Everett said. “What we can all agree upon are the basic rights of humans … It’s great to have people in the clinic with diverse backgrounds because they can relate and speak to different clients.”
Einhorn selects students who have a fervor for international peace and justice to be in his clinic. During their first semester with the clinic, new members take a course called Asylum and Refugee Law, which Einhorn teaches.
Students carry out clinic responsibilities under the supervision of Einhorn and immigration attorneys Susan Hill and Emily Allen. According to Einhorn, students conduct “intake interviews,” in which they meet with potential clients and determine if their stories are credible. If they choose to take a case, the next step is to learn more about the client’s background and to help complete any necessary paperwork. If there are legal proceedings, students represent the clients in court. Einhorn meets with his students at least once a week to go over the clinic’s cases and input suggestions.
Einhorn, who served as a U.S. Immigration Judge for 17 years, has a special connection to the asylum law that governs the clinic. In 1980, Einhorn, a Justice Dept. lawyer at the time, was the principal draftsperson for the Refugee Act, an immigration law that admits refugees into the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.
Alex Voschinsky, a third-year law student and member of the Asylum Clinic, said he was one of two students originally assigned to Ghanipour’s case last fall. He and fellow student Edyta-Christina Grzybowska met face-to-face with Ghanipour, gathering evidence for the case and fleshing out the distressing details of her past.
Voschinsky said Ghanipour had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her physical, mental and psychological persecution.
“Her past history is filled with pain and trauma,” Voschinsky said. “There was a lot of hurt in the past that caused her to block out some memory. By interviewing her, we eventually got the facts in a much more detailed and specific way that really showed how much [she] suffered. That was not always an easy process, but finally we did it.”
Ghanipour was born in Iran into a Muslim family. In 1979, she moved to Germany for a to study medicine, and eventually came to the United States where she had relatives. While in the U.S., she converted to Christianity. Her family responded by abandoning her.
Because her immigration status had lapsed, she could not find work or medical care. For nine years, she traveled from address to address, from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, all the while suffering from various physical and emotional problems. But because she faced a possible execution in Iran, she remained in the U.S. illegally.
About a year ago, Ghanipour showed up the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, where she was referred to the Asylum Clinic.
“She was very distraught, and very willing for us to help her,” Everett said. “She bounced from shelter to shelter, house to house, to where there wasn’t a whole lot of continuity in her life except for the clinic and the people who were working on her application. It was not just a legal matter— [she was] relying on real people who were really willing to help.”
The students at the clinic were struck by Ghanipour’s spiritual conviction. Despite her dire circumstances, she always had faith that God would rescue her from persecution.
“She said she was touched by God,” Voschinsky said. “[She] is a very spiritual person, and this made her trustworthy and believable … Not that someone who’s not religious cannot be believable. But it definitely felt like she was being honest because she coming from a place that’s very, very deep.”
According to Everett, Ghanipour’s faithfulness gave her a sense of authenticity that assisted her during the case.
“She’s an incredibly genuine woman,” said Everett, who worked on Ghanipour’s asylum application. “When you’re applying [for asylum], the government really scrutinizes how genuine you are. She’s a very faithful convert. God is very much in her life day to day.”
In May, Pepperdine law student and clinic member Kristin Heinrich accompanied Ghanipour to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Asylum Office in Anaheim. There, they presented Ghanipour’s case for asylum.
According to Einhorn, the government had three options at this point: grant the asylum, refer the case to another branch of Homeland Security, or deny asylum and prosecute Ghanipour with deportation in front of a federal judge. Therefore, by identifying herself to the government, Ghanipour exposed her illegal status in the U.S. and risked deportation by the same agency that could grant her asylum.
“[That risk] was something we discussed with her at great length,” Einhorn said. “But she had a lot of courage, and she was also a deeply committed Christian. And I think that she felt that it was important to make a statement about her principles and her faith, and to do so to a government in a country she loved.”
On Aug. 28, the clinic received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security announcing that Ghanipour’s asylum application had been approved. Ghanipour, with the legal support of Pepperdine law students, had finally received the freedom from persecution she had fought so hard for. Unfortunately, she does not know it. She disappeared in late July and has been missing ever since.
This was the Asylum Clinic’s first successful case, and there have been two more victories since then. Heinrich said her experience with the clinic has been vocationally satisfying and uplifting. It has also been a reflection of her Christian faith, which she said centers around love, service and self-sacrifice.
“To work on cases and see the difference that you can make in someone’s life … that’s why I’m in law school,” Heinrich said. “And to me, that’s the ultimate way of how we can use our legal gifts to help each other.”
In addition to searching for Ghanipour, the clinic is currently representing several new clients, including a Christian convert, a Jewish convert and a Mexican police detective whose devout Catholic beliefs have put him at risk by Latin American drug cartels. According to Einhorn, it’s common for criminal organizations to resent individuals who are deeply religious and refuse to identify with drug cartels and gangs.
Einhorn, who is a member of the Jewish faith, said it’s critical for all individuals who believe in God to take a stand against religious persecution of any kind.
“If you believe in God, and if you’re a monotheist,” Einhorn said, “you learn very quickly in your own faith, whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, that the God that made you in his image, made your Christian and Muslim friends in his image, too.
“If you assault the dignity of another human being, if you insult his faith, if you persecute him for his beliefs, then you are spitting in the face of God, because we are [all] made in his image. It seems to me that if you can’t learn that, you’re not being very true to your own faith.”
The Pepperdine Asylum Clinic is the only asylum-specific clinic in the greater Los Angeles area. In order to handle all the cases on its growing waiting list, as well as pay for interpreters and psychologists for its clients, the clinic needs to continue receiving independent funding.
Individuals interested in donating to the Asylum Clinic can e-mail Einhorn (BJEJUDGE@aol.com) or Director of Law Advancement Stacy Taylor (Stacy.Taylor@pepperdine.edu).
“If we raise more money, instead of doing 8, 9, 10 cases, we can do 50 or 100,” Einhorn said. “The money you give to my clinic will save human life— I don’t know a better pitch than that.”
Persecuted, abused and abandoned by her family and her government, Gilda Ghanipour had just one thing left to cling to— her faith. She had converted from Islam to Christianity, a capital offense in her native Iran, and sought refuge in the United States. Without legal U.S. citizenship or immigration status, she faced deportation back to Iran, where imprisonment, further persecution and a possible death sentence awaited her.
Ghanipour had solid grounds for applying for asylum in the U.S., but she was destitute and had no means to pay for legal help. Federal legislation allows law students, under the supervision of a licensed attorney, to represent clients who cannot afford legal representation. So Ghanipour, desperate for documented protection from the Iranian government, looked to a team of Pepperdine law students for her freedom.
“She really had a well-rounded fear of persecution,” said Kelly Everett, one of the Pepperdine law students who worked on Ghanipour’s case. “The [Iranian] government … knew she was going in and out of her country and given her problems in her past. So she genuinely feared going back.”
Everett is a member of the Pepperdine School of Law’s Asylum Clinic, a special unit of aspiring lawyers who represent poverty-stricken immigrants seeking legal status in the United States. Like Ghanipour, all these clients request asylum out of fear of religious persecution abroad. By the time they have arrived at Pepperdine, the clinic is often their last hope for attaining safe haven.
“When these victims of persecution come to campus, they see the cross,” said Judge Bruce J. Einhorn, founder and director of the Asylum Clinic. “They sit down with kind people who … listen to them respectfully. It’s transformative. Some of these people have never known kindness in their whole lives. And the first time they know it is here, at Pepperdine.”
The clinic does not only take in clients who are Christian converts. Any refugee who has been persecuted for his or her religion—whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Islam or another belief system—is eligible for representation. The clients, as well as the students in the clinic, come from a number of different religious and cultural backgrounds.
“Justice doesn’t have one ethnicity, one color, or one creed,” Everett said. “What we can all agree upon are the basic rights of humans … It’s great to have people in the clinic with diverse backgrounds because they can relate and speak to different clients.”
Einhorn selects students who have a fervor for international peace and justice to be in his clinic. During their first semester with the clinic, new members take a course called Asylum and Refugee Law, which Einhorn teaches.
Students carry out clinic responsibilities under the supervision of Einhorn and immigration attorneys Susan Hill and Emily Allen. According to Einhorn, students conduct “intake interviews,” in which they meet with potential clients and determine if their stories are credible. If they choose to take a case, the next step is to learn more about the client’s background and to help complete any necessary paperwork. If there are legal proceedings, students represent the clients in court. Einhorn meets with his students at least once a week to go over the clinic’s cases and input suggestions.
Einhorn, who served as a U.S. Immigration Judge for 17 years, has a special connection to the asylum law that governs the clinic. In 1980, Einhorn, a Justice Dept. lawyer at the time, was the principal draftsperson for the Refugee Act, an immigration law that admits refugees into the U.S. for humanitarian reasons.
Alex Voschinsky, a third-year law student and member of the Asylum Clinic, said he was one of two students originally assigned to Ghanipour’s case last fall. He and fellow student Edyta-Christina Grzybowska met face-to-face with Ghanipour, gathering evidence for the case and fleshing out the distressing details of her past.
Voschinsky said Ghanipour had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of her physical, mental and psychological persecution.
“Her past history is filled with pain and trauma,” Voschinsky said. “There was a lot of hurt in the past that caused her to block out some memory. By interviewing her, we eventually got the facts in a much more detailed and specific way that really showed how much [she] suffered. That was not always an easy process, but finally we did it.”
Ghanipour was born in Iran into a Muslim family. In 1979, she moved to Germany for a to study medicine, and eventually came to the United States where she had relatives. While in the U.S., she converted to Christianity. Her family responded by abandoning her.
Because her immigration status had lapsed, she could not find work or medical care. For nine years, she traveled from address to address, from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, all the while suffering from various physical and emotional problems. But because she faced a possible execution in Iran, she remained in the U.S. illegally.
About a year ago, Ghanipour showed up the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, where she was referred to the Asylum Clinic.
“She was very distraught, and very willing for us to help her,” Everett said. “She bounced from shelter to shelter, house to house, to where there wasn’t a whole lot of continuity in her life except for the clinic and the people who were working on her application. It was not just a legal matter— [she was] relying on real people who were really willing to help.”
The students at the clinic were struck by Ghanipour’s spiritual conviction. Despite her dire circumstances, she always had faith that God would rescue her from persecution.
“She said she was touched by God,” Voschinsky said. “[She] is a very spiritual person, and this made her trustworthy and believable … Not that someone who’s not religious cannot be believable. But it definitely felt like she was being honest because she coming from a place that’s very, very deep.”
According to Everett, Ghanipour’s faithfulness gave her a sense of authenticity that assisted her during the case.
“She’s an incredibly genuine woman,” said Everett, who worked on Ghanipour’s asylum application. “When you’re applying [for asylum], the government really scrutinizes how genuine you are. She’s a very faithful convert. God is very much in her life day to day.”
In May, Pepperdine law student and clinic member Kristin Heinrich accompanied Ghanipour to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Asylum Office in Anaheim. There, they presented Ghanipour’s case for asylum.
According to Einhorn, the government had three options at this point: grant the asylum, refer the case to another branch of Homeland Security, or deny asylum and prosecute Ghanipour with deportation in front of a federal judge. Therefore, by identifying herself to the government, Ghanipour exposed her illegal status in the U.S. and risked deportation by the same agency that could grant her asylum.
“[That risk] was something we discussed with her at great length,” Einhorn said. “But she had a lot of courage, and she was also a deeply committed Christian. And I think that she felt that it was important to make a statement about her principles and her faith, and to do so to a government in a country she loved.”
On Aug. 28, the clinic received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security announcing that Ghanipour’s asylum application had been approved. Ghanipour, with the legal support of Pepperdine law students, had finally received the freedom from persecution she had fought so hard for. Unfortunately, she does not know it. She disappeared in late July and has been missing ever since.
This was the Asylum Clinic’s first successful case, and there have been two more victories since then. Heinrich said her experience with the clinic has been vocationally satisfying and uplifting. It has also been a reflection of her Christian faith, which she said centers around love, service and self-sacrifice.
“To work on cases and see the difference that you can make in someone’s life … that’s why I’m in law school,” Heinrich said. “And to me, that’s the ultimate way of how we can use our legal gifts to help each other.”
In addition to searching for Ghanipour, the clinic is currently representing several new clients, including a Christian convert, a Jewish convert and a Mexican police detective whose devout Catholic beliefs have put him at risk by Latin American drug cartels. According to Einhorn, it’s common for criminal organizations to resent individuals who are deeply religious and refuse to identify with drug cartels and gangs.
Einhorn, who is a member of the Jewish faith, said it’s critical for all individuals who believe in God to take a stand against religious persecution of any kind.
“If you believe in God, and if you’re a monotheist,” Einhorn said, “you learn very quickly in your own faith, whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian, that the God that made you in his image, made your Christian and Muslim friends in his image, too.
“If you assault the dignity of another human being, if you insult his faith, if you persecute him for his beliefs, then you are spitting in the face of God, because we are [all] made in his image. It seems to me that if you can’t learn that, you’re not being very true to your own faith.”
The Pepperdine Asylum Clinic is the only asylum-specific clinic in the greater Los Angeles area. In order to handle all the cases on its growing waiting list, as well as pay for interpreters and psychologists for its clients, the clinic needs to continue receiving independent funding.
Individuals interested in donating to the Asylum Clinic can e-mail Einhorn (BJEJUDGE@aol.com) or Director of Law Advancement Stacy Taylor (Stacy.Taylor@pepperdine.edu).
“If we raise more money, instead of doing 8, 9, 10 cases, we can do 50 or 100,” Einhorn said. “The money you give to my clinic will save human life— I don’t know a better pitch than that.”
Article #4: Doug Kmiec Feature for Currents
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Douglas Kmiec is a former Pepperdine law professor, a legal scholar, a devout Catholic, a husband and a father of five. A few months ago, he embarked on a new journey, a foreign mission, as the United States Ambassador to Malta. The President has given Kmiec the rare opportunity to represent the U.S. on an international stage, to reach across national, political and cultural divides and to facilitate relationships that carry worldwide significance.
“It is a distinct privilege to stand in a spot where you are America, and what you say is in some respect binding on your fellow citizens,” Kmiec said. “I’m privileged that the President has as much confidence in my ability as this task requires.”
In March 2008, Kmiec gained national prominence as someone who places more importance in personal conviction than in political identification. Although a conservative and former legal counsel to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Kmiec endorsed Barack Obama for president and became one of the senator’s most visible supporters on the campaign trail.
Kmiec is a Republican; Obama is a Democrat. Kmiec is pro-life; Obama is pro-choice. But despite their fundamental differences, Kmiec was drawn to Obama’s message of unity and good will across party lines.
“One of the things I discovered about Senator Obama was that he was always a person who sought out common ground with people who might disagree with him,” Kmiec said. “He was someone who very much wanted to run for the presidency on the basis of eliminating the politics of division, the wedge politics.”
Pepperdine law professor Shelley Saxer described Kmiec as always open to considering ideas and opinions that differ from his beliefs.
“As a professor, he is always respectful of varying student opinions and listens carefully to arguments on both sides of an issue,” Saxer wrote in an e-mail. “As a colleague, he is also always respectful of opinions that may conflict with his own ideas, but he is willing to engage in discussions about these ideas and listen to others.”
In March of this year, representatives of the White House approached Kmiec and asked if he would consider the posting for U.S. Ambassador to Malta. This was three months before Obama would officially nominate Kmiec for the position, in early June.
“I was honored to be even thought of for this post, so I said ‘of course,’” recalled Kmiec. “But first I wanted to explore what the president’s objectives were for this foreign mission, and why I was the one best suited to carry it.”
Kmiec met with Obama, and the two of them discussed the expectations the President had for the role of ambassador. Obama called the position “well-matched” for Kmiec, who could identify with Malta’s strong Catholic-Christian roots.
Obama nominated Kmiec for the position on July 2. In order to gain necessary security clearance, Kmiec had to undergo a strict background investigation by the FBI. The government looked into his prior addresses, spoke with his friends, colleagues and relatives and reviewed his financial history. This preceded the Senate process.
“Once you’re nominated, you prepare another set of forms for the U.S. Senate,” Kmiec said. “They conduct the confirmation hearing, and then, if you survive the committee vote, your nomination goes to the floor. And once it goes to the floor, it is voted up or down by the Senate.”
It early August, the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Kmiec as ambassador, and he was sworn in on Sept. 3.
Malta is a densely populated European island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, located just south of Italy and east of Tunisia. Because of its proximity to southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Obama sees Malta as a pivotal point in the connection between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
“The President wants this place to become … a doorway to modern peace, premised upon interfaith understanding,” Kmiec said. “And he views the embassy in Malta as one of the key places where that can occur.”
In a speech he delivered in Cairo, Egypt on June 4, Obama called for a new relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world. One of Kmiec’s primary objectives as ambassador is to foster mutual understanding between members of different faiths, using Malta as a base for carrying out Obama’s plan for international religious reconciliation.
“My position is to carry that work he started in Cairo forward, in a person-to-person, face-to-face manner,” Kmiec said. “In order to do that you have to promote mutual respect … for people’s faith traditions.”
Kmiec is a deeply committed Catholic. While at Pepperdine, he attended Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and taught an adult religious education class there.
“It is undeniably clear to all who know Doug that his faith and his family are at the very center of his priorities,” wrote Jim Gash, associate dean for student life at the School of Law, in an e-mail. “Doug sees the world through the lens of his strong and abiding Catholic faith — it informs all that he does and believes about everything.”
Kmiec said he has committed to visiting all of Malta’s 365 Catholic churches for morning mass— one each day for a year.
“I am a very serious Catholic,” Kmiec said. “I enjoy studying Catholic theology and philosophy. I think we have an obligation to transform the world in the image of Christ and to do that one person at a time in whatever situation we have, high or low. I love engaging people in discussions about that and about how to generate community.”
According to Kmiec, Malta’s location in the Mediterranean places it as a potential gateway for piracy and terrorism. In the past, individuals affiliated with terrorist activity have accessed Europe illegally, using Malta as an entry point. As the ambassador, Kmiec works with the Maltese government to ensure the country’s security arrangements properly protect against those who would impose a threat to Southern Europe or the U.S.
“That is a constant responsibility and one that [the ambassador] takes very seriously,” Kmiec said. “It takes only one small gap, one look in the wrong direction, or one failure to be alert for risk to be introduced.”
Kmiec also assists the Maltese government in detecting and deterring human and drug trafficking. On a similar note, Kmiec said the religious and political oppression in places like Sudan and Darfur has prompted fairly large-scale migrations from Africa, and many of these refugees attempt to cross the Mediterranean with little food or clothing.
During his service as ambassador, Kmiec has arranged for Maltese armed forces to receive advanced training and equipment that will aid refugee search and rescue efforts. Many of these African immigrants are settled in the United States.
Kmiec said his position doesn’t allow for any off time; while professors and lawyers can go home each night and hang up their spurs, an ambassador is on call 24/7.
“It is a truly awesome set of responsibilities,” Kmiec said. “It is, in some ways, the embodiment of the presidency or the executive in a different part of the globe, just as I expect the President feels in the White House— he is always the President … it’s a different role than I’ve played [in the past].”
Because ambassadors are expected to remain in their host country, Kmiec said his interactions with his five children have been mostly limited to Skype. His daughter Katie recently had a son, Kmiec’s first grandchild. Next to faith, Kmiec said his family is one of the things that animates his life.
Jennifer Allison, who is a Reference Librarian at the Pepperdine Law School, knows Kmiec both as a former student and as a colleague. She is also a personal friend of Katie and affirmed the significance of family in Kmiec’s life.
“His family is everything to him,” Allison said. “My husband and I went to [Katie’s] baby shower, and to see him there— he was so, so excited. He was so proud of Katie that she was forging her own life and that he could still be a part of it … it’s really heartwarming.”
When he is not discussing faith, meeting with the Maltese officials at the embassy or Skyping with his children, Kmiec said he spending time with his wife of 36 years, Carol.
“Her day is as filled as mine. The wife of an ambassador is an ambassador,” Kmiec said. “She will sometimes substitute me for a speaking engagement, but more often than not, she will be in a school, or a church, or a community center dedicated to supporting a charity for the disabled or supporting an activity that explores the human environment. It’s fun to watch her light up a room.”
Saxer described the Kmiecs as an example of “what to do right when raising a family.”
“Throughout our friendship of almost 15 years, I have marveled at the excellent child-rearing approach he and his wife Carol have managed,” Saxer said. “Doug would always take one of his children with him on business trips. His children were always polite, respectful, smart, fun, and able to interact with both adults and children with personality and intelligence.”
According to Kmiec, ambassadors typically serve for a single four-year term. Once he is finished with his “foreign mission,” he plans to return to the U.S. and write about his experiences as ambassador. He said Pepperdine has made it clear that the door is open for him to teach at the School of Law and School of Public Policy in the future.
Douglas Kmiec is a former Pepperdine law professor, a legal scholar, a devout Catholic, a husband and a father of five. A few months ago, he embarked on a new journey, a foreign mission, as the United States Ambassador to Malta. The President has given Kmiec the rare opportunity to represent the U.S. on an international stage, to reach across national, political and cultural divides and to facilitate relationships that carry worldwide significance.
“It is a distinct privilege to stand in a spot where you are America, and what you say is in some respect binding on your fellow citizens,” Kmiec said. “I’m privileged that the President has as much confidence in my ability as this task requires.”
In March 2008, Kmiec gained national prominence as someone who places more importance in personal conviction than in political identification. Although a conservative and former legal counsel to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Kmiec endorsed Barack Obama for president and became one of the senator’s most visible supporters on the campaign trail.
Kmiec is a Republican; Obama is a Democrat. Kmiec is pro-life; Obama is pro-choice. But despite their fundamental differences, Kmiec was drawn to Obama’s message of unity and good will across party lines.
“One of the things I discovered about Senator Obama was that he was always a person who sought out common ground with people who might disagree with him,” Kmiec said. “He was someone who very much wanted to run for the presidency on the basis of eliminating the politics of division, the wedge politics.”
Pepperdine law professor Shelley Saxer described Kmiec as always open to considering ideas and opinions that differ from his beliefs.
“As a professor, he is always respectful of varying student opinions and listens carefully to arguments on both sides of an issue,” Saxer wrote in an e-mail. “As a colleague, he is also always respectful of opinions that may conflict with his own ideas, but he is willing to engage in discussions about these ideas and listen to others.”
In March of this year, representatives of the White House approached Kmiec and asked if he would consider the posting for U.S. Ambassador to Malta. This was three months before Obama would officially nominate Kmiec for the position, in early June.
“I was honored to be even thought of for this post, so I said ‘of course,’” recalled Kmiec. “But first I wanted to explore what the president’s objectives were for this foreign mission, and why I was the one best suited to carry it.”
Kmiec met with Obama, and the two of them discussed the expectations the President had for the role of ambassador. Obama called the position “well-matched” for Kmiec, who could identify with Malta’s strong Catholic-Christian roots.
Obama nominated Kmiec for the position on July 2. In order to gain necessary security clearance, Kmiec had to undergo a strict background investigation by the FBI. The government looked into his prior addresses, spoke with his friends, colleagues and relatives and reviewed his financial history. This preceded the Senate process.
“Once you’re nominated, you prepare another set of forms for the U.S. Senate,” Kmiec said. “They conduct the confirmation hearing, and then, if you survive the committee vote, your nomination goes to the floor. And once it goes to the floor, it is voted up or down by the Senate.”
It early August, the Senate voted unanimously to confirm Kmiec as ambassador, and he was sworn in on Sept. 3.
Malta is a densely populated European island nation in the Mediterranean Sea, located just south of Italy and east of Tunisia. Because of its proximity to southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, Obama sees Malta as a pivotal point in the connection between Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
“The President wants this place to become … a doorway to modern peace, premised upon interfaith understanding,” Kmiec said. “And he views the embassy in Malta as one of the key places where that can occur.”
In a speech he delivered in Cairo, Egypt on June 4, Obama called for a new relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world. One of Kmiec’s primary objectives as ambassador is to foster mutual understanding between members of different faiths, using Malta as a base for carrying out Obama’s plan for international religious reconciliation.
“My position is to carry that work he started in Cairo forward, in a person-to-person, face-to-face manner,” Kmiec said. “In order to do that you have to promote mutual respect … for people’s faith traditions.”
Kmiec is a deeply committed Catholic. While at Pepperdine, he attended Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church and taught an adult religious education class there.
“It is undeniably clear to all who know Doug that his faith and his family are at the very center of his priorities,” wrote Jim Gash, associate dean for student life at the School of Law, in an e-mail. “Doug sees the world through the lens of his strong and abiding Catholic faith — it informs all that he does and believes about everything.”
Kmiec said he has committed to visiting all of Malta’s 365 Catholic churches for morning mass— one each day for a year.
“I am a very serious Catholic,” Kmiec said. “I enjoy studying Catholic theology and philosophy. I think we have an obligation to transform the world in the image of Christ and to do that one person at a time in whatever situation we have, high or low. I love engaging people in discussions about that and about how to generate community.”
According to Kmiec, Malta’s location in the Mediterranean places it as a potential gateway for piracy and terrorism. In the past, individuals affiliated with terrorist activity have accessed Europe illegally, using Malta as an entry point. As the ambassador, Kmiec works with the Maltese government to ensure the country’s security arrangements properly protect against those who would impose a threat to Southern Europe or the U.S.
“That is a constant responsibility and one that [the ambassador] takes very seriously,” Kmiec said. “It takes only one small gap, one look in the wrong direction, or one failure to be alert for risk to be introduced.”
Kmiec also assists the Maltese government in detecting and deterring human and drug trafficking. On a similar note, Kmiec said the religious and political oppression in places like Sudan and Darfur has prompted fairly large-scale migrations from Africa, and many of these refugees attempt to cross the Mediterranean with little food or clothing.
During his service as ambassador, Kmiec has arranged for Maltese armed forces to receive advanced training and equipment that will aid refugee search and rescue efforts. Many of these African immigrants are settled in the United States.
Kmiec said his position doesn’t allow for any off time; while professors and lawyers can go home each night and hang up their spurs, an ambassador is on call 24/7.
“It is a truly awesome set of responsibilities,” Kmiec said. “It is, in some ways, the embodiment of the presidency or the executive in a different part of the globe, just as I expect the President feels in the White House— he is always the President … it’s a different role than I’ve played [in the past].”
Because ambassadors are expected to remain in their host country, Kmiec said his interactions with his five children have been mostly limited to Skype. His daughter Katie recently had a son, Kmiec’s first grandchild. Next to faith, Kmiec said his family is one of the things that animates his life.
Jennifer Allison, who is a Reference Librarian at the Pepperdine Law School, knows Kmiec both as a former student and as a colleague. She is also a personal friend of Katie and affirmed the significance of family in Kmiec’s life.
“His family is everything to him,” Allison said. “My husband and I went to [Katie’s] baby shower, and to see him there— he was so, so excited. He was so proud of Katie that she was forging her own life and that he could still be a part of it … it’s really heartwarming.”
When he is not discussing faith, meeting with the Maltese officials at the embassy or Skyping with his children, Kmiec said he spending time with his wife of 36 years, Carol.
“Her day is as filled as mine. The wife of an ambassador is an ambassador,” Kmiec said. “She will sometimes substitute me for a speaking engagement, but more often than not, she will be in a school, or a church, or a community center dedicated to supporting a charity for the disabled or supporting an activity that explores the human environment. It’s fun to watch her light up a room.”
Saxer described the Kmiecs as an example of “what to do right when raising a family.”
“Throughout our friendship of almost 15 years, I have marveled at the excellent child-rearing approach he and his wife Carol have managed,” Saxer said. “Doug would always take one of his children with him on business trips. His children were always polite, respectful, smart, fun, and able to interact with both adults and children with personality and intelligence.”
According to Kmiec, ambassadors typically serve for a single four-year term. Once he is finished with his “foreign mission,” he plans to return to the U.S. and write about his experiences as ambassador. He said Pepperdine has made it clear that the door is open for him to teach at the School of Law and School of Public Policy in the future.
Article #5: Project Masindi
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Dirty, stale air filled their lungs as soon as they entered the facility. Through the darkness, they could make out the forms of 18 African teenaged boys, who were perplexed by the sudden presence of a half-dozen white men, wearing suits and holding cameras.
This was an unusual sight at this remand home, a detention center for Ugandan minors who had been accused of crimes and were waiting for their cases to be heard in court. Nearby, three teenaged girls were locked in a smaller concrete building. These 21 children had lived there, some for up to two years, sleeping on mats made of reeds and trying to survive with limited food and water.
“I remember walking in, and it was a dark, awful, dirty place,” said Jay Milbrandt, director of the Pepperdine Law School’s Global Justice Program. “My first impression was this is just a breeding ground for disease … I can’t imagine living in this facility all day.”
Most of the kids were at least 40 miles from their homes. Some had been arrested and brought there without being able to notify their families of their whereabouts. Many of them were innocent. But without shoes, money or supplies, they had no means of escape. They had no choice but to sit and wait for a trial date that didn’t seem to ever be coming. It was prison.
“When we got to the remand home … the first thing that came to mind was sorrow and pain,” said Ray Boucher, Pepperdine law alumnus and member of the Board of Visitors. “I just wanted to take my arms and wrap them around the 21 children and tell them it’s going to be OK. [It was] dark, cold, hard, inhumane.”
A magistrate judge explained to the boys why these Mzungus— which means “white men” in Swahili— were visiting Masindi, Uganda. These are lawyers, they said, and you must answer any questions they ask you.
From January 10 through 13, Milbrandt and Boucher, along with Associate Dean Jim Gash and law alumnus David Barrett, spent time with the children at the remand home as part of an operation they called Project Masindi.
Their mission was to gather the details surrounding the kids’ cases and summarize them in a series of reports, hoping to facilitate the scheduling of trial dates for the children. For four days, they interviewed the prisoners, reviewed police reports and spoke with witnesses of the alleged crimes. On January 14, they submitted their findings to the High Court of Uganda.
Because of their work, many of the children have already had their hearings and been released from he remand home, and the rest of the cases will be heard in court by Monday.
The children were charged with a number of different crimes, ranging from petty theft to statutory rape to murder. When Milbrandt, Gash, Boucher and Barrett began to evaluate the evidence against the prisoners, however, it was clear that many of them were innocent.
In Uganda, one accusation is enough to warrant an arrest. Because the country’s criminal justice system doesn’t have the court staff or resources to keep up with its number of cases, prisoners will often wait for years before they get a hearing.
“All you have to is be accused of something, and you rot for a long time,” Gash said. “In the U.S., you’re out [of jail] that night. You get a lawyer, and you get probation. There, you just sit.”
On the first day, the magistrate judge asked the boys if any of them spoke English. Only two, a pair of 16-year-old brothers named Henry and Joseph, raised their hands. They were assigned to be interpreters.
“My assumption was that everybody [at the remand home] spoke English,” said Jim Gash, associate dean for student life at the School of Law. “So the initial reaction was, ‘We have a bigger job ahead of us than we thought.’”
Henry and Joseph had been at the remand home for 20 months when Gash and Barrett interviewed them. They were accused of beating a man to death, although the police report revealed they had been in school at the time of the murder. It was also clear from the interviews that these boys were extraordinarily gifted, Gash said. Prior to their arrest, they had attended an advanced school with scholarships from the Ugandan government.
In December, the female police officer who monitored the remand home was arrested, which left the children without any adult supervision. The local government put Henry in charge, giving him a cell phone, a set of keys and instructions to lock himself and the other kids in each day. He became the leader of the remand home, dutifully carrying out his responsibilities while making sure the other children were safe. “It was otherworldly,” Gash said.
If the kids tried to flee, Milbrandt explained, they would likely be killed by nearby villagers, who would see them as escaped prisoners first and children second.
“That’s the mob justice mentality out in the bush— criminals don’t last very long,” Milbrandt said.
On the second day, the group interviewed a 17-year-old girl named Scovia, who had been at the remand home for five months because she was charged with murdering her two-week-old baby. With Henry interpreting, Scovia claimed her baby girl had died of natural causes.
During the interview, Scovia spoke in quiet tones and would often have to be asked to repeat herself, Gash said. She appeared to be sad, hopeless and still in mourning. She kept saying, “I didn’t kill my baby. I love my baby.”
The court file confirmed she was telling the truth, Gash said.
Shortly after she became pregnant, Scovia moved in with her grandmother, who was an alcoholic. On the night she gave birth, Scovia was alone at the house. She sat on the ground, cradling her newborn baby for several hours before her grandmother returned home and cut the umbilical cord. Scovia named the baby Kirabo, which means “gift.”
Kirabo began to vomit soon after she was born, so Scovia asked her grandmother for money to take her baby to the hospital. Her grandmother refused, saying the vomiting was normal and that Kirabo would be fine. Two weeks later, while the grandmother was out drinking, Kirabo died. The grandmother told the police that Scovia murdered her baby.
“She didn’t kill her baby,” Gash said. “That was clear from our conversation, and even clearer from the court file. There wasn’t any reason to believe this baby died from anything other than being a sick two-week-old that wasn’t getting medical attention.”
Not all the children were innocent, Gash said, and some confessed they had committed the crimes they were charged with. However, many of them had been at the remand home for longer than the sentences of their alleged crimes. One boy, for example, had served six months for stealing $40 and a tin of bubblegum.
Boucher said the prisoners were initially distrustful, but they eventually warmed up to their interviewers. At the end of the week, Boucher said he could see a “small sliver of hope” in the children.
“By the end, they were smiling, and you knew that they were beginning to trust somebody for the first time in months, if not years,” Boucher said.
On January 15, they submitted their work to Ralph Ochan, the High Court Judge who would be hearing the children’s cases. He was satisfied with the extensiveness of the reports and said he’d try to schedule all the hearings by February.
Most of the children, including Henry and Joseph, have already been released. If all goes according to plan, Scovia and the rest of the children will have their hearings by Monday.
Gash said the Ugandan government realizes its criminal justice system is in dire need of personnel and resources. Ochan was not surprised to learn that there had been children living at the remand home for two years.
“He knows [the system] is broken. The problem is he’s one judge, and he’s responsible for the whole area,” Gash said. “They don’t have enough judges, they don’t have enough lawyers, they don’t have enough court staff. They don’t have a system that’s accountable to anyone.”
John Napier, who graduated from Pepperdine Law School in 2009 and works for the High Court, played an integral role in securing the men access to the remand home. Napier worked closely with John Niemeyer, who is Country Director for Restore International, an organization dedicated to bringing justice to impoverished children around the world. Restore International was “the impetus for the project,” Napier said.
Both Napier and Niemeyer were present at the remand home on the first day of the project, and throughout the week they gathered police reports and other documents to aid the efforts of Milbrandt, Gash, Boucher and Barrett.
Milbrandt said Restore International has knowledge of five other remand homes in Uganda. They plan to continue the legacy of Project Masindi by sending attorneys from the Pepperdine community to another remand home in the next six to nine months.
Their ultimate goal, however, is to train the Ugandan government to do this kind of work itself. Napier and Gash said they hope Project Masindi will serve as a sparkplug for eventual improvements in the country’s juvenile justice system.
“Hopefully, if this turns into a full-blown program, we can see children have regular and consistent hearings before Ugandan courts rather than languishing in a remand home,” Napier wrote in an e-mail. “If that can be counteracted then there will be a great impact on Ugandan youth and the ripple effects could be quite substantial.”
Dirty, stale air filled their lungs as soon as they entered the facility. Through the darkness, they could make out the forms of 18 African teenaged boys, who were perplexed by the sudden presence of a half-dozen white men, wearing suits and holding cameras.
This was an unusual sight at this remand home, a detention center for Ugandan minors who had been accused of crimes and were waiting for their cases to be heard in court. Nearby, three teenaged girls were locked in a smaller concrete building. These 21 children had lived there, some for up to two years, sleeping on mats made of reeds and trying to survive with limited food and water.
“I remember walking in, and it was a dark, awful, dirty place,” said Jay Milbrandt, director of the Pepperdine Law School’s Global Justice Program. “My first impression was this is just a breeding ground for disease … I can’t imagine living in this facility all day.”
Most of the kids were at least 40 miles from their homes. Some had been arrested and brought there without being able to notify their families of their whereabouts. Many of them were innocent. But without shoes, money or supplies, they had no means of escape. They had no choice but to sit and wait for a trial date that didn’t seem to ever be coming. It was prison.
“When we got to the remand home … the first thing that came to mind was sorrow and pain,” said Ray Boucher, Pepperdine law alumnus and member of the Board of Visitors. “I just wanted to take my arms and wrap them around the 21 children and tell them it’s going to be OK. [It was] dark, cold, hard, inhumane.”
A magistrate judge explained to the boys why these Mzungus— which means “white men” in Swahili— were visiting Masindi, Uganda. These are lawyers, they said, and you must answer any questions they ask you.
From January 10 through 13, Milbrandt and Boucher, along with Associate Dean Jim Gash and law alumnus David Barrett, spent time with the children at the remand home as part of an operation they called Project Masindi.
Their mission was to gather the details surrounding the kids’ cases and summarize them in a series of reports, hoping to facilitate the scheduling of trial dates for the children. For four days, they interviewed the prisoners, reviewed police reports and spoke with witnesses of the alleged crimes. On January 14, they submitted their findings to the High Court of Uganda.
Because of their work, many of the children have already had their hearings and been released from he remand home, and the rest of the cases will be heard in court by Monday.
The children were charged with a number of different crimes, ranging from petty theft to statutory rape to murder. When Milbrandt, Gash, Boucher and Barrett began to evaluate the evidence against the prisoners, however, it was clear that many of them were innocent.
In Uganda, one accusation is enough to warrant an arrest. Because the country’s criminal justice system doesn’t have the court staff or resources to keep up with its number of cases, prisoners will often wait for years before they get a hearing.
“All you have to is be accused of something, and you rot for a long time,” Gash said. “In the U.S., you’re out [of jail] that night. You get a lawyer, and you get probation. There, you just sit.”
On the first day, the magistrate judge asked the boys if any of them spoke English. Only two, a pair of 16-year-old brothers named Henry and Joseph, raised their hands. They were assigned to be interpreters.
“My assumption was that everybody [at the remand home] spoke English,” said Jim Gash, associate dean for student life at the School of Law. “So the initial reaction was, ‘We have a bigger job ahead of us than we thought.’”
Henry and Joseph had been at the remand home for 20 months when Gash and Barrett interviewed them. They were accused of beating a man to death, although the police report revealed they had been in school at the time of the murder. It was also clear from the interviews that these boys were extraordinarily gifted, Gash said. Prior to their arrest, they had attended an advanced school with scholarships from the Ugandan government.
In December, the female police officer who monitored the remand home was arrested, which left the children without any adult supervision. The local government put Henry in charge, giving him a cell phone, a set of keys and instructions to lock himself and the other kids in each day. He became the leader of the remand home, dutifully carrying out his responsibilities while making sure the other children were safe. “It was otherworldly,” Gash said.
If the kids tried to flee, Milbrandt explained, they would likely be killed by nearby villagers, who would see them as escaped prisoners first and children second.
“That’s the mob justice mentality out in the bush— criminals don’t last very long,” Milbrandt said.
On the second day, the group interviewed a 17-year-old girl named Scovia, who had been at the remand home for five months because she was charged with murdering her two-week-old baby. With Henry interpreting, Scovia claimed her baby girl had died of natural causes.
During the interview, Scovia spoke in quiet tones and would often have to be asked to repeat herself, Gash said. She appeared to be sad, hopeless and still in mourning. She kept saying, “I didn’t kill my baby. I love my baby.”
The court file confirmed she was telling the truth, Gash said.
Shortly after she became pregnant, Scovia moved in with her grandmother, who was an alcoholic. On the night she gave birth, Scovia was alone at the house. She sat on the ground, cradling her newborn baby for several hours before her grandmother returned home and cut the umbilical cord. Scovia named the baby Kirabo, which means “gift.”
Kirabo began to vomit soon after she was born, so Scovia asked her grandmother for money to take her baby to the hospital. Her grandmother refused, saying the vomiting was normal and that Kirabo would be fine. Two weeks later, while the grandmother was out drinking, Kirabo died. The grandmother told the police that Scovia murdered her baby.
“She didn’t kill her baby,” Gash said. “That was clear from our conversation, and even clearer from the court file. There wasn’t any reason to believe this baby died from anything other than being a sick two-week-old that wasn’t getting medical attention.”
Not all the children were innocent, Gash said, and some confessed they had committed the crimes they were charged with. However, many of them had been at the remand home for longer than the sentences of their alleged crimes. One boy, for example, had served six months for stealing $40 and a tin of bubblegum.
Boucher said the prisoners were initially distrustful, but they eventually warmed up to their interviewers. At the end of the week, Boucher said he could see a “small sliver of hope” in the children.
“By the end, they were smiling, and you knew that they were beginning to trust somebody for the first time in months, if not years,” Boucher said.
On January 15, they submitted their work to Ralph Ochan, the High Court Judge who would be hearing the children’s cases. He was satisfied with the extensiveness of the reports and said he’d try to schedule all the hearings by February.
Most of the children, including Henry and Joseph, have already been released. If all goes according to plan, Scovia and the rest of the children will have their hearings by Monday.
Gash said the Ugandan government realizes its criminal justice system is in dire need of personnel and resources. Ochan was not surprised to learn that there had been children living at the remand home for two years.
“He knows [the system] is broken. The problem is he’s one judge, and he’s responsible for the whole area,” Gash said. “They don’t have enough judges, they don’t have enough lawyers, they don’t have enough court staff. They don’t have a system that’s accountable to anyone.”
John Napier, who graduated from Pepperdine Law School in 2009 and works for the High Court, played an integral role in securing the men access to the remand home. Napier worked closely with John Niemeyer, who is Country Director for Restore International, an organization dedicated to bringing justice to impoverished children around the world. Restore International was “the impetus for the project,” Napier said.
Both Napier and Niemeyer were present at the remand home on the first day of the project, and throughout the week they gathered police reports and other documents to aid the efforts of Milbrandt, Gash, Boucher and Barrett.
Milbrandt said Restore International has knowledge of five other remand homes in Uganda. They plan to continue the legacy of Project Masindi by sending attorneys from the Pepperdine community to another remand home in the next six to nine months.
Their ultimate goal, however, is to train the Ugandan government to do this kind of work itself. Napier and Gash said they hope Project Masindi will serve as a sparkplug for eventual improvements in the country’s juvenile justice system.
“Hopefully, if this turns into a full-blown program, we can see children have regular and consistent hearings before Ugandan courts rather than languishing in a remand home,” Napier wrote in an e-mail. “If that can be counteracted then there will be a great impact on Ugandan youth and the ripple effects could be quite substantial.”
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