U.S. Bid to Deport Man Is Rejected

A U.S. immigration judge on Friday rejected efforts by the federal government to deport a Seal Beach bartender for his role in the 1988 killings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland, criticizing the British judicial system for the way it treated the man.

The decision caps a four-day trial in a Terminal Island courtroom that centered around the notorious Casement Park killings, in which the two corporals were beaten by a Belfast mob and fatally shot by members of the Irish Republican Army. The attack, captured on videotape, came to symbolize the cycle of violence in Northern Ireland during that era.

Sean O’Cealleagh, a 35-year-old British national known for singing Celtic tunes to patrons at O’Malley’s bar in Seal Beach, served eight years in a Belfast prison for “aiding and abetting” in the killings. After his release, he sought a new life in the United States, marrying and settling down in Seal Beach.

But in February, returning to Los Angeles International Airport after a trip to Northern Ireland, he was detained by immigration officials who boarded the plane and separated him from his 3-year-old American-born son. They said he should have never been allowed into the United States because of his conviction.

Much in the trial revolved around O’Cealleagh’s role in the killings. Judge Rose Peters said she ruled against deporting him because she believed his original conviction in Belfast was tainted. She found that the videotape introduced by immigration officials did not conclusively prove O’Cealleagh was in Casement Park when the beatings occurred.

Moreover, Peters said the British courts had been “inconsistent” in the way they punished suspects in the killings, some receiving long prison sentences while others went free. In the end, she found that O’Cealleagh was a political prisoner, which qualifies him for an exemption to the deportation rule.

“Everything in this case from beginning to end ... labels this as political,” she said.

Citing several studies by human-rights groups, she said the British court handling the Casement Park cases “failed to satisfy international fair trial standards.”

Peters is just the latest of several federal judges to reject deportation requests for people convicted in British courts of crimes related to the Northern Ireland conflict. In many of these cases, the judges have found that the subjects were political prisoners even though British courts convicted them of violent crimes.

O’Cealleagh’s wife and mother fought back tears as Peters read her verdict.

“This is what Sean should have gotten years and years ago,” his wife, Geraldine O’Cealleagh, said.

Immigration officials called the judge’s ruling an error and said they probably would appeal. In the meantime, O’Cealleagh will remain in custody.

O’Cealleagh spent two days on the stand recounting his life in Northern Ireland and proclaiming, “I didn’t kill anyone.” The trial drew witnesses from both sides of Northern Ireland’s troubled history, who flew to the United States at their own expense to testify in court.

Sean O’Driscoll, an Irish Times reporter who flew in to cover the hearings, said the O’Cealleagh trial has captured interest in Ireland because the Casement Park killings were such a seminal moment.

“But this incident was the one that shocked people to the core,” he said. “It was the most graphic, most televised of all the killings on either side.”

On March 19, 1988, two undercover British soldiers were observing the funeral of an IRA member when they were noticed by mourners. They were dragged from their car, taken to Casement Park, beaten and handed over to IRA members who later shot them. The IRA later took responsibility for the killings.

About 200 people were arrested in the killings. Most were released or acquitted. But O’Cealleagh and two others -- known as the “Casement Three” -- were convicted of aiding and abetting the murders.

The convictions have been criticized by international human rights groups because the cases were decided in non-jury trials with British judges determining guilt or innocence.

During his two days on the stand, O’Cealleagh sketched the story of a man who grew up during times when his country was filled with violence.

O’Cealleagh said that as a child he witnessed shootings and home raids by authorities. A milkman he worked for in his youth, he said, was shot while getting out of his car. His grandmother’s brother was shot in the back of the head, he added, while getting a transfer for the bus.

On the day the British corporals were shot, O’Cealleagh testified he was returning from baby-sitting relatives when he walked by a funeral procession. He said he was on the periphery of the crowd surrounding the soldiers but did not follow it into Casement Park. He also said he was not a member of the IRA.

As in the original 1990 trial in Northern Ireland, the deportation case hinged on three videotapes that captured the funeral incident on film. On Thursday, the judge, lawyers and prosecution viewed footage -- cut and compiled from all three tapes -- in a closed session, barring the public and media from seeing it.

Although the footage was publicly shown in British courts, Peters signed a protective order, citing national security and law enforcement concerns.

A Northern Ireland police officer who flew in with the tapes this week also carried a note from the British government arguing that a public viewing of the tape would “harm the cooperative relationship” between United States and British immigration authorities.

Prosecutors contended that the tape shows O’Cealleagh in Casement Park.

They also said the original British case against him had more to do with the violence of the crime than with politics.

O’Cealleagh came to the United States shortly after his release from prison and received a green card. He traveled freely between the two countries without incident until earlier this year. Immigration officials said he should have never been allowed in the country, but that they did not know about his criminal history until they installed new security measures after 9/11.

“Our position is that he should never have been granted permanent resident status,” said U.S. immigration spokeswoman Virginia Kice, adding that the years he spent in the United States do not change the fact that he was convicted of a “very serious, very brutal crime.”

The bartender’s mother, Brid O’Cealleagh, said she cannot celebrate the judge’s ruling until her son is released.

“We’ll just have to wait and see,” she said.