4 Romanian Acrobats on Tour With Circus Defect

Four Romanian acrobats touring with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus asked U.S. immigration officials for political asylum Thursday in Orange County.

Aided by a former Romanian circus performer who defected three years ago and now lives in Tustin, the four women slipped away from the circus in Los Angeles and announced their intentions to defect at a mid-afternoon press conference in Garden Grove.

Through an interpreter, they said they decided to defect because of restrictions on creativity in their homeland and because they wanted a chance to make more money in this country. The acrobats, who are in the United States on work visas, said they were angry because the Romanian government took 35% to 40% of their earnings.

The four performers are Juliana Dumitrescu, 33; her 13-year-old daughter, Brigitta; Georgeta Serban, 27, and Aurelia Petrescu, 32. They were among about 30 Romanians who have been touring with the circus since December.

“We know nothing about it,” Ringling Bros. marketing director D. Scott Smith said of the defections. “All we know is four people didn’t show up for work. . . . We’re in the dark on this thing. We heard about it because a reporter called.”

In Washington, the Romanian Embassy had no official comment on the defections. Reached by telephone at the embassy after business hours, an individual identifying himself only as a Romanian official said: “We’ve been aware of problems within the circus for weeks. This comes as no big surprise to us.”

One U.S. State Department official who handles Eastern European affairs said this is at least the second time this year that a Romanian member of the circus has sought political asylum in this country. Last spring, a teen-age trapeze performer was given asylum after defecting on the East Coast, he said.

The latest defection plan was hatched while the four women were still in Romania, Dorina Maxwell, the group’s interpreter, said during Thursday’s press conference. Maxwell, 23, who works as a make-up artist and travel agent, has lived in the United States since 1984, when she was granted asylum.

Maxwell said she visited the four women when the circus was in Florida. When it arrived in Los Angeles last week, Dumitrescu and her daughter were allowed to stay at her Tustin home. On Tuesday, the decision to defect became final, Maxwell said.

About 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Maxwell said, she contacted the office of Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove). Maxwell, along with Dumitrescu and her daughter, then picked up one of Dornan’s aides, Pat Fanelli, in Garden Grove and drove to circus facilities at a rail yard in downtown Los Angeles. They picked up Serban and drove to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where the circus is performing through Sunday.

They were to meet Petrescu at 12:45 p.m., but the group was early and had to wait nervously in the car outside the arena as spectators filed past for the afternoon performance, Maxwell said.

“It was incredible,” Fanelli said. “It was like being in a spy movie.”

Inside the arena, Petrescu told circus officials she was feeling faint and needed some fresh air.

Wearing only a light blue chenille bathrobe, she walked outside, then hurried to meet the others. The defector was followed by a 17-year-old Romanian acrobat who, Maxwell said, had realized what was happening and apparently wanted to join them.

Grabbed Car Window

As Maxwell tried to drive away, the teen-age girl grabbed onto one of the car’s open windows.

“She was holding so tight,” Maxwell recalled, “that I really couldn’t pull the car out. And her eyes were so scared, and it was really depressing.”

Because the girl was a minor not traveling with a parent, Maxwell said, the odds were against the United States granting her asylum. And if she had tried to defect and failed, Maxwell said, the Romanian government “would have been very hard on her.”

Leaving her behind, Maxwell, Fanelli and the four defectors drove toward Garden Grove. As they drove, Fanelli said, they looked at their watches and smiled. The curtain was just going up at the circus.

“They were on the freeway racing toward freedom,” Fanelli said.

Later, at the circus, a Romanian acrobat who appeared to be in his 30s, said he was surprised, but not shocked, by the defection.

Asked why he thought they defected, the man said in broken English:

“Because friends hear about California. It’s good. It’s nice. America, different people. For me America is very nice. Romania is very, very nice. The show is very good, money and conditions and everything.”

The acrobat said he was certain that the Romanian government will not call him and the other performers from Romania home. He said there were three troupes of acrobats, and the four defectors were with the teeterboard troupe.

A woman who identified herself as the leader of the troupe, said in broken English:

“The four women are crazy,” she said, visibly agitated. “Romania is a nice country.”

Through a translator, she added:

“Those four are not considered my people. They are not Romanians for what they are doing.”

She said she was worried that Americans would try to make a “scandal” out of this.

Three of the four defectors left behind husbands in Romania, and Petrescu has a 15-year-old daughter living in Bucharest. To ensure the plan’s success, Maxwell said at the press conference, none of the men were told of it. The women said their husbands would have tried to stop them by exposing their plan.

“This is not a possibility. This is certain,” Maxwell told reporters.

She added that Romanian officials might have jailed the women.

As Maxwell talked, the four defectors, including Petrescu, who was still in her robe, sat quietly. None speaks English. “It’s quite early after the run,” Maxwell said, “and they are quite happy, but very nervous.”

Maxwell said the press conference was designed to put pressure on the U.S. government to grant asylum. Brian Bennett, Dornan’s chief of staff, predicted that it is “unlikely that sanctuary will be denied.”

Joe Flanders, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles, said the request will be turned over to the State Department.

Times staff writer Maura Dolan contributed to this article.