From building a case against suspected pedophiles to prosecuting drug trafficking rings, John Lulejian '90 finds his technical background helps him get favorable results in his role as Assistant United States Attorney.

Flying over the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh reminded John J. Lulejian ’90 of the landscape from the movie “Apocalypse Now.” On the ground, the great disparity between poverty and wealth played out in scenes all around him. Elegant hotels stood blocks away from desperate shanties. Child prostitutes worked among well-heeled tourists. It was these children that brought Lulejian to this city of contrasts.

Lulejian, an Assistant United States Attorney, and fellow Assistant United States Attorney Susan B. Dohrmann visited Phnom Penh in 2003 to depose victims for a case against an American citizen. The case they built from this visit—one of Lulejian’s biggest cases—involved the prosecution of the first American charged under a 2003 statute which made it illegal for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to travel in foreign commerce and engage in illicit sexual conduct. The defendant was Michael Lewis Clark, then a 69-year-old military veteran, who was spending much of his time in Cambodia.

Clark’s activities had caught the eye of a foreign non-governmental organization which rescued sexually exploited children. After seeing Clark enter a guest house with children, the group contacted the Cambodian National Police, who arrested Clark. Following his arrest, Clark admitted having sex with up to 50 children around the world, some of whom were paid as little as $2 each. One victim later told authorities he had sex with Clark because he needed money to buy food for his brother and sister.

Clark was expelled from Cambodia and transported to Seattle, Washington, to face federal charges. Following months of negotiations, Clark agreed to plead guilty, provided he could challenge the new law in court. Prosecutors agreed, and the two sides battled through the appeals process, with Clark arguing that the new law overstepped the legal reach of the government. The stakes were high. If the government lost the appeal, one of the primary weapons it hoped to use to fight sexual exploitation of foreign children could be at risk. Published accounts estimate two million children are victimized annually by sex tourism, and that roughly one in four sex tourists is an American.

“One of the challenges in prosecuting this case was that we were dealing with an new, untested law,” Lulejian recalls. “Nonetheless, relying on international law and precedent from other statutes, we successfully convinced the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to uphold the constitutionality of this new law.” Clark’s appeal eventually reached the United States Supreme Court, which refused to review his conviction. Lulejian and his fellow prosecutors had taken one admitted pedophile off the street, and in doing, so had paved the way for other prosecutions around the nation.

A Technical Preparation
Such work requires precision and a great deal of thought, not unlike the engineering courses Lulejian took at HMC.

“I found my technical training prepared me for the law,” says Lulejian of his switch from engineering to law. “The experiences in the engineering discipline and logical thinking worked well with understanding and applying the law.”

After studying engineering at HMC, Lulejian spent three years at a Silicon Valley firm which made specialized computer chips. However, Lulejian always knew that he wanted to pursue a graduate degree. One option was medical school—he had taken pre-med courses as an undergraduate. Instead, he found himself drawn to law school. “I wanted to do something in public life. And I believed that many of the skills that I honed as an engineer would translate to the law. At one point, I had thought about becoming a patent attorney.”

He enrolled at Temple University Law School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and while he was there, he began to fall in love with criminal law. “During my last semester, I wrote a research paper on Internet gambling for a seminar on organized crime. I realized there were many areas in the emerging areas of computer and high-tech crime where I could use my engineering skills.”

He was attracted to the United States Department of Justice, but first wanted to broaden his background in private practice. After serving as a judicial law clerk for a United States District Judge in Philadelphia, he returned to Los Angeles and worked for two prominent law firms where he practiced complex civil and criminal litigation. In 2002, The United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington offered him the opportunity to prosecute computer crime in Seattle. Lulejian took the job. However, before he could focus on computer crimes, Lulejian had to rotate through the General Crimes section, like all new prosecutors.

“It turned out to be the best thing that happened to me,” he recalls. “By not being forced to specialize at the outset, I learned how to
prosecute a wide variety of federal crimes. I also spent a significant amount of time in court.”

In one instance, Lulejian helped prepare the criminal complaint that allowed the FBI to arrest the D.C. Sniper. In another, he prosecuted an inmate who sent a letter to the FBI threatening President George W. Bush. He also prosecuted a man who charged the cockpit of a 747 returning to Seattle from Honolulu. Lulejian also spent four years prosecuting a significant international drug and money laundering organization that was bringing large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine from Mexico into the United States.

Problem, Solution, Reward
As for the Clark case, Lulejian says it is one of the most rewarding things he’s done so far in his career. In addition to the intellectual challenges, he had the opportunity to learn about Cambodia and its rich culture. He continues to read about Cambodia and stay in touch with friends he made while there.

“While we were prosecuting this case, we recognized the importance of what we were doing. We wanted to show the Cambodian people that most Americans are not like these people that are abusing their children. We also wanted to send a message around the world that this kind of behavior cannot be tolerated. It must not be tolerated, and it will not be tolerated.”

Last year, Lulejian returned to Los Angeles, where he now prosecutes violent and organized crime for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Each new case requires Lulejian to draw upon problem solving skills honed at HMC. “Mudd taught me that there’s no problem you cannot solve if you have the time and the resources.”