A former judge of Prince George’s County in Maryland, United States, April Ademiluyi, discusses her entry and exit from the judicial system with BIODUN BUSARI
What would you say about your childhood?
I was born in the United States. My parents are from Lagos, Nigeria. My father lives in Lagos, but my mother is here with me in the States. She raised my two siblings and me, who were also born here. I can say that, as a Nigerian, I had difficulties with the acceptance of other cultures. For example, Black Americans didn’t quite accept my family as Africans. So, my mother went through a lot of discrimination from Black Americans, and I certainly went through discrimination myself as a child. As a child, I hung around a lot more Africans than anyone else.
Interestingly, white Americans actually accepted our African heritage more than Black Americans. That’s what it was like growing up for me. As Africans, we had difficulty with Black Americans.
How would you compare racial discrimination between then and now?
Discrimination against Africans at that time was not quite as severe anymore. Things have absolutely changed now. I think it’s because more Africans have migrated to the US. I think it has completely changed the scene and culture. I think Black Americans are far more accepting of us.
But I think one thing I notice now is a kind of hostility between Blacks and Whites. I can’t say things are better now. I think there’s just a different type of discrimination that’s eating up our headlines.
What inspired your studies?
I have a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Then I went on to law school. I graduated from George Mason University. As far as my studies, I just started with Chemical Engineering because I was good with math and sciences. My parents didn’t even need to tell me what to study. My siblings were also brilliant in math and sciences. So, we didn’t need direction on what to study. We went for our talents and what we enjoyed doing.
What motivated you to go into serving in the public space?
It wasn’t like I went into politics. It was just that I decided to run for judge. Obviously, running for a judge is political. Contesting for a judge in Prince George’s County, Maryland, has some constraints.
It’s not as easy to run for judge as it is for other political positions. However, what actually prompted me to do that was a personal experience that I had. I was a victim of a crime, and I reported it. The perpetrators who harmed me were wealthy and powerful people who were connected to the prosecutors, and because of that, I couldn’t get justice.
It was something that sparked a need for me to make a change to our judicial system. It drove me to want to be a judge. I wanted to ensure that what we call the two-tiered system of justice that treats the rich and the poor differently doesn’t happen on my watch. It was that personal experience that pushed me into a kind of politics or public service.
Would you like to share that experience that pushed you into running for judge?
I was drugged and raped at a bar association conference. It was a sad experience in 2012. It was a conference where lawyers gathered. So, obviously, those who drugged and raped me were lawyers. Then I reported the case to the local police.
They (police) assisted me with recording a conversation between me and one of the people who was involved in drugging and raping me. In that conversation that the police were recording, I got him to confess. Then the recording disappeared. It not only disappeared but was also swapped with another recording.
In the swapped one, he was not confessing to what he did to me. He didn’t confess that he raped me. It was a grainy recording that sounded to me like there were clues that they put the whole thing together.
What happened next after you won as a county judge?
I wanted to be a different judge who was not going to allow justice that treats the rich and the poor differently in my courtroom. It was one of the things that I pledged when I was running for judge.
I pledged to work with the law enforcement agency to uproot corruption in the courts. There was a specific concern that the judges were taking bribes from prison contractors to incarcerate children. That became a point in my campaign where I told myself to work with law enforcement to uncover what they were doing.
All I wanted was for this to be addressed, but this created a lot of tension among the judges who were taking bribes. I must say that it was tough for me to win. It took me running three times to win. I was met with a lot of hostility because they were afraid that I was communicating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about corruption in the courts.
Out of hostility, I went through a lot of harassment on that job until the very end of it, when I was ultimately terminated. The experience was extremely stressful from day one to the very end because of the harassment they subjected me to.
How many years did you serve to work with the FBI in exposing this corruption you talked about?
I was there for three years and four months. They started by watching my emails. The particular judge I was reporting to the FBI for taking bribes would use whatever I said as a complaint. She would make me look like an uncooperative and biased person.
They used all these things against me. There were times they picked some of my emails out of context and tried to paint a picture like I was being biased on a case that I was deciding. They completely misconstrued my emails.
They would say I was biased on rape cases because I was a rape victim. You don’t see a lot of this in the media. I have not seen any judge being attacked this way. Judges can fire you for any reason, and they used all that to attack me.
Did you have colleagues who stood by you at times to defend you?
I did not get support from anyone there. Everybody was against me. They don’t like anybody in their system who could potentially be talking to law enforcement agencies. There was a lot of corruption going on, and they didn’t want you to uncover it. They didn’t want me to talk about it.
Are you pursuing a case to get justice?
No. The lawsuit I have is not about getting my job back. I cannot go back to that job. As I said, the harassment was too much. There were a number of things they did. I mean, just nine months into this, I started getting harassment letters from a man who was serving a life sentence in a federal penitentiary for drugging and raping women.
They were using this guy to harass me. One morning, there was a huge commercial truck with no license plates that was trailing me and tried to run me off the road. These were all incidents that I reported to the police while I was there. It was very obvious to me that the truck tried to run me off the road. They were trying to kill me. They were afraid of being caught for taking bribes to incarcerate children. That’s a very hefty penalty that is going to come at them.
What do you do now?
I’m not practising law anymore. I decided to focus on going back into intellectual property work. I’m just getting ready to go back into practising patent law specifically.
Recently, President Donald Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and threatened to send troops to terminate terrorists ravaging the northern part of Nigeria. What do you think about this?
The thing is that the government is spending a lot of time on immigration cases. The ability of the United States to combat corruption from within is crippled. We have our own problems as well. We have Christian persecution here.
We also have high murder rates in our largest cities. We have corruption that is running and hurting us everywhere. It’s infuriating to see those in power trying to sanction a country like Nigeria.
What will you advise African ladies across the globe who have dreams but are confronted with challenges?
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t go far in life. We live in a very corrupt world, and I don’t care what country you’re in; corruption is everywhere.
So, you must find what you love and be passionate about doing it. Keep on going. Keep up the good fight and never drop the good fight because with perseverance and hard work, success always happens.