Twists of Faith

Pamela McGee spent two days dressed down in an orange jumpsuit in a jail cell in Sacramento. There was no Nike swoosh on this outfit.

It was January 1998, years removed from when Pamela and twin sister Paula helped USC win the 1983 and ’84 national championships in women’s basketball.

Her private block in the civil section was across the hallway from a conglomeration of alleged criminal offenders. They recognized her as she was brought in -- she was a star player for the Sacramento Monarchs of the WNBA -- and, after an initial ruckus of “Pamela McGee, what are you doing here?” McGee, nervous, started to sing.

It was a spiritual song, taken from a Bible verse. “No weapon formed against me shall prosper,” McGee began, and the jail quieted.

“Then they all started standing up and taking turns testifying,” McGee said. “It was like church. One woman stood up and said, ‘God woke me up and told me he was going to set me free.’ And another one said, ‘The Lord spoke to me last night and told me that I was going back to jail, but I’m going back with the Word.’ It was something.”

McGee was jailed during a Sacramento Superior Court hearing because, mired in a child custody battle with her ex-husband, the Rev. Kevin Stafford, she refused to tell the judge the location of her then 3-year-old daughter, Imani. McGee had taken Imani out of Michigan, where the couple had married and later divorced in 1996, without court permission. When the 1997 WNBA season ended, Stafford expected McGee to return Imani to Michigan, and when McGee didn’t, Stafford went to court.

What ensued was a very public, biting saga of twists and turns, including allegations of sexual abuse on both sides. After two nights in jail, McGee turned Imani over to the judge, and she has never regained custody. She still has no legal visitation schedule.

McGee retired from the WNBA in May 1999, and later returned to Michigan to be close to Imani. Then, in a twist, Stafford apparently moved Imani to Los Angeles without the court’s permission. According to a review of court records, transcripts and information supplied by a Macomb County, Mich., Circuit Court spokesperson, Stafford did not have permission to move Imani out of state. Stafford and his lawyer, Peter Lucido of Michigan, declined comment, citing a gag order on the case dating to 1998.

Then, in the midst of the mire, the strong bond that had always linked Pamela and Paula was temporarily lost. Pamela thought Paula took the other side when she reiterated to an investigator a sexual abuse allegation against a member of McGee’s family.

For the family, the divide was unthinkable.

The twins’ lives, their sister Alayna Gilbert says, had always been entwined. Even before their dad, Jimmie Jr., nailed a hoop above the garage on Esther Street. Even in third grade, when they were so awful at basketball their coach would offer them to opposing teams who didn’t have enough players, saying, ‘Here, take the twins,’ and the girls were so tall the duped coach would do so.

When they were 9, they had a shoe size to match. At 18, they were 6 feet 2 and were among the best basketball players in the country. They led Flint Northern High to a 75-0 record and two Michigan state titles, and had their choice of colleges. Together they chose USC, and made history.

Playing in a frontcourt with Cheryl Miller, and with a backcourt that included Cynthia Cooper and Rhonda Windham, the twins were an integral part of a team that won USC’s only basketball national championships.

When we last left them, Pam was giving Paula her gold medal after winning the 1984 Olympic basketball championship in Los Angeles. Pam found Paula -- who didn’t make the Olympic team -- in the crowd at the Forum and ran to her. “This medal’s for you too,” Pam told her. They cried. Together.

Saturday night, USC will honor the ’83 and ’84 championship teams during halftime of its game at the Forum, and Pamela and Paula, now 40, will stand together again.

Their feud was a huge blow to a family already struggling with life’s injustices. Last year, their mother, Dianne McGee, 58, had a life-impairing stroke. She is the matriarch of the family, its strength, having raised four children alone after her husband drowned in a boating accident when the twins were 15.

Two years ago, Pamela was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was caught early and, so far, having weathered a mastectomy, removal of her lymph nodes and reconstructive surgery, has won that fight. She also looks strong; her hair is long and shiny, her build, athletic.

“My family has known some grief,” Alayna said. “[Pamela] has had to fight for so many things in her life, some unjust things, where one battle comes after another, and I admire her courage.

“She doesn’t always fight a good fight, or the best way, but she does the best she can. And no matter who knocks her down or what comes her way she’s never going be a woman who says, ‘OK, I give up, I quit.’ ”

McGee, up again, says she’s ready to resume the fight for custody of Imani, now 8: “Maybe because I had a strong mother, and because of my athletic career, I just realize I may be down for the count, but I’ll be back. I just needed time to regroup. But never did I give up. There is a time of the season for everything.

“Don’t make this a pity-party story.”

The Case

The reason McGee harbored Imani, according to her declaration filed Jan. 9, 1998 in Sacramento Superior Court, was concern that Imani “has been molested by her paternal grandfather, E.E. Stafford.”

E.E. Stafford, pastor of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church in L.A., has denied the allegations. But it wasn’t until a Sacramento Superior Court judge signed a temporary restraining order preventing E.E. Stafford from having any contact with Imani, and enjoined Kevin Stafford to comply, that McGee turned Imani over to authorities and was released from jail.

McGee’s custody issue gained national attention in 1998 when Kevin Stafford and his lawyer, Peter Lucido, argued that McGee’s WNBA career impaired her ability to be a good parent. Stafford dropped that argument after the comments caused an outcry from those concerned with the rights of a single parent. In the media blitz that followed, Judge Peter J. Maceroni of the Macomb County Court in Mt. Clemens, Mich., placed a gag order barring those involved from talking about the case. He then assigned the matter to the Michigan Friend of the Court to investigate and provide a recommendation.

The court investigation took nearly a year. Stafford was awarded physical custody with both parents sharing joint custody. The ruling had nothing to do with McGee’s WNBA career. It stated that both parents were fit, but sided with Stafford because Imani had established a home with him before and while the court was sorting everything out.

Then, in the summer of 2000, despite McGee’s objections in court, Stafford moved Imani to L.A., where he became assistant pastor at his father’s church and still works. Imani has lived in L.A. for the last two years, according to McGee and family members.

McGee’s allegations of sexual abuse against E.E. Stafford were investigated and substantiated by a California protective services agency, but he was not prosecuted, according to a report filed on June 15, 1999 by the Friend of the Court Office in Macomb County. The investigator, who gave no reason why E.E. Stafford was not prosecuted, said she believed there was some sexual abuse committed by somebody against the child, but found it difficult to prove.

E.E. Stafford sought a restraining order against McGee and sued her for slander, but later dropped the suit. “I can tell you that there is no truth to it,” he said in a telephone interview. “I had control of my son and Pam used that to try and persuade him to listen to her instead of being obedient to me.”

E.E. Stafford said he was not investigated by a California child protective agency and did not know there was a report in the public file in Michigan. He had no further comment on the matter.

The Friend of the Court report also addressed an anonymous complaint investigated by the Michigan Children’s Protective Services in March 1997. The complaint alleged that Imani had suffered physical and sexual abuse from a member of McGee’s side of the family. The report stated the Michigan agency could find “no credible evidence” to these charges, and found them “unsubstantiated.” The report stated that Imani, then 2, had told these allegations to a day-care worker and to a maternal aunt.

Paula McGee confirmed she was the maternal aunt. If the allegations were true, Paula said, she wanted everyone to get help. This, she said, is what caused the rift between her and her sister.

“I knew everything that was going on both sides, and I thought it was at the expense of my niece and nephew, so I wasn’t on anybody’s side,” Paula said. “In the beginning, I talked with Pam about it, but later, she thought I wasn’t supporting her. This was the beginning of our down time. Like, time out. It’s not permanent.”

Pamela said she is no longer angry with Paula, but confirmed this was the reason she and Paula’s relationship had struggled.

“It was a betrayal,” Pamela said.

Legacy of Strength

In August, Pamela started life anew at Chicago State University as a women’s basketball assistant coach. She made the move to Chicago from Flint, where she had been coaching boys’ basketball. Then, in October, she accepted the position of assistant coach for the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, and moved back to Michigan. That placed her closer to the courthouse, where she plans to resume legal pursuit for custody of Imani, and closer to her mother, who is in a nursing home in Flint.

The family says Dianne McGee’s condition is improving, and her spirit is better, but she is paralyzed on her right side and has trouble speaking. The family plans to move her to a home close to daughter Alayna, who lives in Chino Hills.

Pamela is a single mom to 14-year-old son JaVale, who already wears a size 17 shoe and, at 6-2 (the doctor said he will be 7 feet), looks mom square in the eye. He gets good grades, and plays basketball.

“When you affect a woman as a mother there’s no deeper pain,” McGee said. “Jesus died, was crucified, they threw spears at him, tried to hurt him, he went to hell and back, but ultimately, he resurrected. Some people stay on the cross, they say, ‘Woe is me, this and that,’ but I chose to resurrect out of the situation.

“For my son and for my daughter, when it’s all said and done, they’ll say my mother was a strong woman. If she can do it, I can do it.”

McGee says she sees Imani rarely, and talks with her on the phone only once in a while. Alayna keeps in close touch with Imani. This summer, Alayna says, Imani asked her why she didn’t take her mom’s side during the trials. Then she asked her why she didn’t take her dad’s side.

Alayna told Imani: “ ‘Here’s what I did, I chose to stay neutral, and I chose to spend time with you. That’s how I supported your mom, by taking care of you. Because sometimes when adults fight, Imani, you just have to stay out of it.’

“And Imani looks at me and says, ‘Well, you know when I get older I’m going to go read the court papers.’ ”