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Monday, September 29, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Interpreters in courtrooms a money issue"

James D. Wolf Jr. reports today in the Gary Post-Tribune:

VALPARAISO -- On Oct. 20, Vietnamese-born Len Huynh will stand trial for welfare and Medicaid fraud, but there's a complication: language.

Although she's been in U. S. foster homes since she was about 13, she's been tested as having a first-grade comfort level with English, according to her attorney, Eric Neff.

Huynh will have to provide her own translator, according to an Indiana Supreme Court ruling this year.

Since the Jan. 9 decision of Jesus Arrieta v. Indiana, translators for the accused are like expert witnesses or investigators in state felony cases, and that affects Porter County courts, mostly because they don't have to pay for trial translators.

"If the defendant has the ability to hire counsel, they have the ability to hire an interpreter," Judge Roger Bradford of Superior Court 1 said in explanation of the ruling.

Defendants who rely on a public defender can get a paid interpreter.

Otherwise, only when a jury can't understand either a defendant or a witness on the stand is the court obligated to pay, as Bradford's court did in the mid-August Arturo Garcia-Torres rape case.

When Garcia-Torres, 21, is sentenced on Nov. 14 on charges of rape, attempted rape and two counts of burglary, he'll have to find his own interpreter.

His attorney, Visvaldis Kupsis, used two volunteer translators for Garcia-Torres from missionary and church organizations.

Neff, however, is pricing translators for Huynh and noted she had one for a previous trial in Marion County. * * *

However, the courts have a resource for the pre-trial hearing where language becomes a barrier.

For initial hearings, where defendants find out what they're charged with, and for status hearings, the courts have had use of the Language Line.

The State Court Administrator began buying $25,000 worth of time at about $1.25 a minute from the California firm about two years ago, and usually the county courts use it.

"We get a lot of 'operating with no license,'" when the person has a Mexican license, Judge David Chidester of Superior Court 4 said.

Language Line is immediate, just a call to the company.

The court, which is the only county court at the Valparaiso courthouse, has used it about four times, mostly for Spanish, Court Reporter Becky Stowers said.

"It saves us from having to pay for an interpreter," Stowers said.

The firm also has interpreters on call around the world, including for indigenous, rare languages like those from small Mexican tribes, said Lilia Judson, executive director for the State Court Administrator.

The ILB has had a number of entries on the Jesus Arrieta v. Indiana decision.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 29, 2008 10:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts