2 Pass Bar Exam They Interrupted to Aid Ill Test Taker

Two of five law students who put down their pencils to help an ill test taker during the State Bar exam have passed the test, Bar officials announced Tuesday.

John Leslie and Julio De Jesus will be sworn in as attorneys later this month, pending the results of a professional responsibility exam and background check. The three others who put aside their tests to help--Yancy Miller, Eunice Morgan and Cynthia Vinales--failed the exam, as did the applicant who fell ill.

The students drew national attention after nearly 500 others apparently ignored the man’s epileptic seizure and kept taking the Bar exam at the Pasadena Convention Center in February.

Bar officials were subjects of criticism and lawyer jokes for denying the good Samaritans extra time to finish the test and announcing that the five students’ scores would not be adjusted. Later, Bar officials recanted and said they would not count the disrupted section of the exam unless that section helped the applicants’ overall scores.

In April, the Bar’s Board of Governors honored the five students with certificates of appreciation for their first aid efforts.

Leslie, 28, said he did not think about the outcome when he stopped taking the test to help the ill man.

“I would’ve definitely helped the guy, regardless of how it turned out,” said Leslie, a North Hollywood resident.

Morgan, a registered nurse in her 40s, said she did not regret her decision to help.

“I’d do it again any time, “ said Morgan, who lives in Culver City. “That’s not even a question.”

But Morgan said she was disappointed that Bar officials did not adjust the five students’ scores on the second and third day of the exam, when the stricken man returned to pick up where he left off. His return appearance was disconcerting, she said.

“Every time he moved or cleared his throat, it got my attention,” she said.

The disruption occurred on the first afternoon of the three day-exam. The five students rushed to the side of 51-year-old Randall Carpenter of Pasadena after he fell to the ground and turned blue. Leslie, who is a former lifeguard, and Morgan administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation until paramedics arrived. The Bar did not discount the section of the test that Carpenter missed because of his seizure.

Bar officials said 44.2% of 3,708 applicants statewide passed the exam. Judy Johnson, chairwoman of the Bar’s Committee on Admissions and Competence, said she did not know what percentage of the Pasadena test takers passed.

At one point, Bar officials said they would consider adjusting the test scores of all 500 or so who took the test in Pasadena. But two testing experts hired by the Bar said that only the five helpers should have their scores adjusted for the disruption because the scores overall were in keeping with scores at other sites.

“The bottom line is that we’ve adjusted the scores where appropriate, and we can pretty much have confidence that no one passed the exam because of the disruption, but no one failed because of it, either,” Johnson said.