Girl, 12, Kept Out of School as Servant in Irvine, Police Say

An Irvine family living in an expensive gated community kept a 12-year-old Egyptian girl as a servant for 18 months, having her sleep on a filthy mattress in the garage and requiring her to work days as a maid instead of going to school, police said Thursday.

Authorities removed the girl from the home Tuesday and arrested Abdelnaser Ibrahim on suspicion of child endangerment and infringing upon the girl’s liberty, both felonies. Police said the girl worked as a maid for Ibrahim, his wife and their five children, cleaning floors, hosing down patio furniture and serving meals.

When detectives found her, she appeared in good health and did not appear to be physically abused.

The girl was living in a 12-by-8-foot converted area of the Irvine home’s garage, authorities said.

Her bedroom contained a mattress on box springs and a floor lamp that did not work.

The room, which stank of urine, lacked ventilation and heating, police said.

“The whole thing is unacceptable,” said Irvine Police Lt. Sam Allevato.

“She was in substandard living conditions while the rest of the family enjoyed very nice surroundings.”

Prosecutors are reviewing whether to file criminal charges, said a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Federal prosecutors are also reviewing the case for possible civil-rights violations, said Thom Mrozek, a U.S. attorney’s office spokesman. The 41-year-old Ibrahim, who owns a steel export business and a small hotel, posted $150,000 bond Wednesday and returned to his home.

His attorney, Allan Stokke, insisted that the girl was treated as a family member and was expected only to do small chores about the home. In return, she was given board, food and clothing.

Stokke said Ibrahim regularly sends money to the girl’s impoverished parents, who have 10 other children and live in a small Egyptian village. “Basically, Ibrahim felt sorry for her. But he also felt she should help around the house,” Stokke said. “She was very well cared for, for a relatively small amount of work she had to do.”

But according to police accounts, the girl had few of the comforts enjoyed by the rest of the Ibrahim household.

Police said the girl began working for Ibrahim’s family as a maid in Egypt when she was 8. Eighteen months ago, she arrived in Irvine, joining the family, which includes three girls, 11, 14 and 17; and twin boys, 7.

Although the boys were regularly seen whizzing around the neighborhood on bicycles, neighbors said they rarely caught a glimpse of the 12-year-old girl.

Unlike Ibrahim’s children, the girl did not attend school and did not speak English. Those neighbors who occasionally saw her told authorities they saw her through windows hosing down patio furniture or dusting inside the home.

“Her main purpose was just to help around the house,” Allevato said.

Authorities said they first heard about the girl when social workers received an anonymous tip Tuesday.

Teaming up with police, social workers and investigators went to the family’s $660,000 home in the exclusive Northpark section, which is adorned with statuettes and paintings in ornate frames.

Inside the garage, police said they found starkly different living conditions.

About a third of the garage had been converted without city permission into the girl’s bedroom, police said.

Police acknowledged that the girl was not restrained from leaving the house.

Indeed, her bedroom door could be locked only from the inside and she could have left through the garage at any time.

But police said that as a youngster who could not speak English, she had little chance of leaving the family.

“It’s not like she was chained,” Allevato said. “She could have left, but she’s only 12 years old. How much can a 12-year-old in a foreign country really do to leave?”

Ibrahim’s attorney said the girl never had any intention of leaving and enjoyed her life in the United States.

“The child wants to continue living here,” Stokke said. “She’s much better off here.”

Stokke said the girl slept in the garage only because there was no room in the house.

And he said Ibrahim’s support of her and her family is part of a well-established Egyptian practice of the well-to-do helping children from poor families.

Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at UCLA’s School of Law, said that although the practice is common in Egypt, it’s a violation of that country’s laws and has come under increasing domestic criticism.

“[Egyptians] know that this practice is not transferable to the United States or Europe and that it would qualify as child abuse,” he said.

The servants, known as “Khadamah,” usually range in age from 9 to 16 and often are forced to sleep in kitchens, El Fadl said.

One neighbor said she first saw the inside of the home’s garage Tuesday when police arrived to search it.

“The garage doors were never open,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

“They always parked their cars on the driveway.”