Soviet Lawyer Holds No Brief for Her Country’s Justice

Painting a far from flattering picture of her homeland, a Soviet lawyer visiting Ventura County this week blasted Soviet economic reforms, charged that her country’s judges are corrupt and called her fellow countrymen rude.

Irina Mashlenko, touring Ventura at the invitation of Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, showed no qualms about stating her views on conditions in her country.

The self-possessed 29-year-old, who is not a member of the Communist Party, said the trip, part of a unique six-month internship, would have been impossible without recent changes in her country.

“This is the first time in history that this has been done and it’s really remarkable to be involved in this program without interference of a governmental organization,” Mashlenko said after touring the district attorney’s office.

Bradbury met Mashlenko at a law conference she was attending in November as part of her internship with a Maryland legal firm. Bradbury said he was surprised by Mashlenko’s outspokenness.

He said it was her willingness to share information about the Soviet Union that made it worthwhile to sponsor the six-day trip to California, where she studied the district attorney’s office and told lawyers about conditions and changes in the Soviet Union.

“I felt it would be a mutually enriching experience for the local lawyers in light of what is going on in the world today,” Bradbury said.

“It would not have been as beneficial if we had had someone come out who was not as forthcoming,” he added.

Mashlenko is one of 17 Soviet lawyers chosen from 167 candidates in a program sponsored by the American Bar Assn. and the Soros Foundation, a New York agency that funds different educational and social programs in the United States and the Soviet Union.

The program allows the lawyers--who must speak English, have a legal education and be younger than 35--to work with private attorneys, public defenders, state prosecutors and legal researchers in offices stretching from Maine to Hawaii.

“The belief was that the Soviet lawyers could profit from the long-term practical exposure to the way law firms work,” said Anthony Richter, program director of the Soros Foundation. “They could see the roles of lawyers in the United States and even possible things they could avoid as they go about shaping their own society’s laws in the future.”

Mashlenko said she did not know when many of the changes recently suggested to rectify the Soviet justice system would be enacted and doubted whether some would work. Hesitating once or twice and stressing that she does not speak for her country, Mashlenko sharply criticized the traditional Soviet justice system.

She said defendants are beaten into making confessions, prisoners are prohibited from taking showers and corrupt judges are easily bribed.

Many Soviet judges are swayed toward certain decisions under threat of recall by the government bodies that elect them, she said.

“Everybody knew that the judge was not independent in his decision because it’s easy to bribe the judge,” Mashlenko said, adding that Soviet judges traditionally have received low pay and are not accorded much respect.

In addition, she said, prison conditions in the Soviet Union are dismal.

Soviet prisoners live in outdated facilities and are banned from using the television, telephone or showers. They are severely limited in the opportunities they have for seeing their families and are only allowed about three letters per year, she said. She said the most important difference between the legal systems in the Soviet Union and United States is the jury trial. Trial by jury was recently approved in theory in the Soviet Union but has yet to be implemented, she said.

Even so, she said, juries will only be used in cases in which the defendant has committed a crime that carries the death penalty.

However, Mashlenko said, she believes the American justice system has its own problems, notably the length of time many condemned prisoners spend on Death Row as they await rulings on their appeals for a change of sentence.

In the Soviet Union, she said, the appellate process is much quicker.

“I think that it’s terrible when a person lives and lives and is still waiting,” she said. “In Russia, the death penalty is executed.”

Keenly interested in her surroundings, Mashlenko has observed more than the legal system, noting especially the clean restaurants and restrooms in the United States.

She said she also was pleased by Americans’ volunteer efforts to donate money and clothing to those less fortunate. And she has enjoyed the friendliness of those she has met.

“Because of all the difficulties in our country, people are so involved in their own problems that they’re more aggressive and ruder,” she said.

While she has enjoyed her experiences here, Mashlenko said, she is preoccupied by the rapid changes now occurring in her country.

“The Americans are so excited, but, excuse me, I really can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m a little more skeptical.”

Mashlenko said she believes that despite Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s success in foreign policy he has absolutely failed in economic reform.

“Those economic difficulties can destroy political changes,” she said. “The people’s patience is exhausted. They don’t want to wait anymore.”

Mashlenko said she has long had an interest in the American justice system.

Saying that she has “never liked the work of the prosecutor,” she said she wants to become a defense lawyer when she returns to the Soviet Union in April.

She said she has been more inspired to pursue her goals after watching defense work by the lawyer she is interning with in Maryland.

During one case she observed, a doctor charged with fraudulent possession of controlled substances was acquitted.

“That was a great victory,” Mashlenko said.

Wearing a demure maroon dress with a white collar and cuffs, Mashlenko paid close attention during her Ventura County visit, even expressing wide-eyed interest in a disaster-training session for county employees.

Nonetheless, Mashlenko said, her most vivid memory will be of Disneyland, which she visited with Bradbury on Sunday.

“It was the strongest impression and experience I got in my stay here,” Mashlenko said. “I almost forgot about the reason I’m here and the political problems and everything.”