CGJ Summer Intern Update #2 from So Heon Park

The following blog post was written by So Heon Park, who is interning with the Alabama Attorney Genearl, working on protectin of women and children. Read So's first blog post here.

Recently, the Division Chief of the Criminal Trials Division was working on a sexual abuse case. In this case, a police officer abused his position to sexually abuse female victims. The police officer was in his uniform and armed when he sexually victimized female victims.

I was able to go to the police officer’s sentencing hearing. At the hearing, I observed how our Division Chief argued for the maximum sentence for the police officer and how victims testified. The Division Chief was very passionate about this case because she truly believed that this should never happen, and she asked for the maximum sentence for a deterrent effect.

Since I have not yet had much experience in the courtroom, attending sentencing hearings and a high-profile trial, which involved the Speaker of the House in Alabama, helped me see how litigators work. Moreover, I was privileged to get a chance to observe an autopsy. My supervising attorney took me to the lab to see how coroners perform autopsies after an accident. I saw everything . . . . This helped me understand how prosecutors obtain evidence and reports from coroners. Furthermore, I did legal research and writing on various issues in our division, which helped me develop legal skills and a litigator’s mind.

Attorneys in my division did their best to meet interns’ interests and provide the best legal experience that they could provide. I appreciated them very much as they shared their views and experience on criminal justice issues.

This post was written by a Center for Global Justice student intern.  The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice. 

CGJ Summer Intern Update: So Heon Park

I interned with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office for the first half of my summer. I was assigned to the Criminal Trials Division because I expressed my interest in combatting human trafficking during the interview. I wanted to help the needy, poor, children, and vulnerable group in our society with my legal skills, and the Criminal Trials Division was the perfect fit this.

When I started my internship, there was one human trafficking case that attorneys in my division had been working on. The case involved an attorney and an eighty-three-year-old man, who took advantage of and sexually abused young female victims. Attorneys in my division gave me a permission to review and study the case file. The case file included all valuable information regarding this case.  Reviewing the file and consulting with the attorneys helped me learn how prosecutors plan and study cases. Moreover, I travel the city where the crime has been happening to attend interviews of witnesses and victims. By attending these interviews, I learned how female victims were victimized because of their vulnerable position. The attorney and the old man used their resources to take advantage of young female victims.

Through this case, I learned how prosecutors and investigators work together, question victims and witnesses to build their case, and try to protect vulnerable victims in our society, especially in human trafficking issues. Furthermore, I worked on legal research and writing to support the attorneys for this case.

Getting hands-on experience to protect the needy and vulnerable in our society was certainly valuable experience that I had not yet received in law school. This internship experience motivated me to think of my future career in criminal law, and I am very grateful that I got to know attorneys who seek justice and have hearts for the victims.

This post was written by a Center for Global Justice student intern.  The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice. 

Twenty Days of Interns: Marie Dienhart

This summer, 20 Center for Global Justice, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law interns are spread across four states and ten countries, going not only with the Gospel, but also with legal training and a passion to see the Lord’s justice carried out on a fallen earth.

Marie spent her summer interning at the Alabama Supreme Court and the Alabama Attorney General's Office. 

As an intern at the Supreme Court, she reviewed briefs submitted for appeal, performed legal research, and helped draft memorandums and opinions. 

As an intern for the Attorney General's Office, she performed research and drafted memoranda on capital cases.


Whether fighting sex trafficking in India and Indonesia, advocating against partial-birth abortion in Europe, advancing the rule of law in Uganda, or securing religious freedom in Bulgaria and South Africa, our interns are making a difference.

See where all of our interns are working here >

Donate to our Internship Grant Program >

Center for Global Justice Intern - Ra Hee Jeon

Ra Hee Jeon, 3L
Alabama Attorney General's Office

The Lens for Cases Involving Sexually Abused Children

After clerking for Justice Parker at the Alabama Supreme Court during the first half of the summer, I have moved down two blocks to a white unmarked building to the Alabama  Attorney General’s Office. Within the Criminal Trials Division, I have been assisting Mrs. Kelly Hawkins Godwin, a Regent Law alumni and an Assistant Attorney General who focuses on child protection and child pornography cases.

In the past week, Mrs. Godwin handed me an active case file, in which a neighbor sexually abused a minor girl several times. At first, one might wonder why a girl would meet a neighbor again after the neighbor tried to touch her during the first visit. However, criminal minds are not sensible and logical. So, a logical mind might have to take the criminal mind as is, instead of trying to understand the logic behind the criminal mind. I was alarmed when I learned that the same minor’s father has sexually abused her for years, and many child pornography videos were found at the father’s residence.

In investigating the child pornography and first-degree sodomy crimes, the Attorney General’s office closely cooperates with the National Children’s Advocacy Center (NCAC). The model of NCAC is the topic of this blog, because it will illustrate how the sexually abused children cases are handled immediately after a case is reported.

It is remarkable that the NCAC, located in Huntsville, Alabama, is the nation’s first Children’s Advocacy Center. The NCAC seeks to prevent sexually abused children from being re-victimized by the system’s response to their cases.  A NCAC team is composed of law enforcement, child protective services, prosecution, mental health, medical, family/victim advocacy, and other resources in a model community response to child sexual abuse.

While the “multidisciplinary team” members seek to fulfill the needs of the child in different ways, the NCAC also conducts and records child forensic interviews so that the child does not have to repeat the testimony over and over again. The child forensic interviews (of which the general principles are recognized in consensus) avoid suggestive techniques and rely on open-ended questions and narrative approach. It is common for the children to be reluctant or delay to disclose an accident of abuse. Thus, the NCAC conducts specialized trainings that focus on challenging interviews; the “challenging” factors may range from long-standing violence abuse to cultural issues.

Learning about the NCAC’s mission, I was able to gain perspective on how the criminal justice system, which is designed primarily for adults, can be frightening and stressful for children and their families. Child forensic interviews and victim advocacy training models by the NCAC are now adopted by child advocacy centers across the country. It is very hopeful to see how the adult-centered criminal justice system shares the goals of child-focused advocacy centers; the system must put on tailored, specialized glasses when examining cases involving sexually abused children.