She is less measured in assessing the damage to her family: “They destroyed what my parents worked for for 15 years. My mother, especially, enjoyed working [at the market], meeting people, chitchatting, and being in the center of Vietnamese life. It was very heartbreaking for her to give it up.”
From her perspective, Lan Pham says, the court victory is bittersweet. Her parents “exhausted their savings to vindicate themselves and to say, ‘There are consequences for those who set out to destroy someone.’ They shouldn’t have had to do this.”
Tuan Pham insists that the principle was worth the cost. He calls the court decision “my legacy to my children and the Vietnamese community across the United States.” Where a native-born citizen might feel only personal vindication, Pham sees in his court victory a ringing endorsement of the American judicial process.
Under the Communist government in Vietnam, he says, “They have what they call ‘people’s court.’ There is a big meeting. If they want to kill someone or put someone in jail, they raise their hand: ‘The violator said this or that!’ And 10 or 12 people raise their hands and say, ‘Yes, I agree, this guy is guilty.’ That’s the way they work . . . . The courts in this country are absolutely different. It doesn’t matter how many raise their hands. You need evidence.
“That’s the thing our people need to know.”
