As area's Latino population grows,

courts struggle with language barrier

Monday, February 26, 2007

By BRENDAN KIRBY
Staff Reporter

When Wendy Padilla-Madden worked in the Tuscaloosa County public
defender's office, she handled a rape case in which the confession of
her Spanish-speaking client was almost thrown out.

There was some question about whether he understood his Miranda rights
before giving that confession.

The defendant ended up pleading guilty as part of a deal with
prosecutors, according to Padilla-Madden.

But, she said, it illustrated one of the many difficulties that the
language barrier causes for English-speaking cops, lawyers and judges
who have to deal with the state's small but rapidly growing Hispanic
population.

"We've had some animosity from folks who take the position, 'Oh, this is
America. Everyone should speak English,'" said Padilla-Madden, who is
heading up a committee of the Alabama State Bar Association that aims to
improve access to the courts for Latinos. "The reality is they are here.
They are trying to learn English. Sometimes that goal is not achieved.
They are part of the legal system."

The bar group's first meeting was Friday at the Birmingham offices of
Lightfoot, Franklin & White.

Padilla-Madden said the state probably has fewer than 20 lawyers who
speak Spanish fluently, and certainly no more than 50. The U.S. Census
Bureau estimates that 4.2 percent of Alabama residents -- some 170,000
people -- speak a language other than English at home, mostly Spanish.
But many experts believe official counts vastly understate the true
number of Latinos in the state.

A Spanish-language radio station recently began broadcasting in
Birmingham, joining ones in other cities like Alabaster and Bessemer.

Padilla-Madden recalled the frustration felt by her colleagues in the
Tuscaloosa County public defender's office who represented Latino
clients. The office had no interpreters, so attorneys often found
themselves communicating through their clients' children as young as 11.

"The poor public defenders had no choice. It was either rely on the kid
or not be able to communicate with their clients," she said.

*No standards for interpreters *

One of the bar committee's chief goals is establishing uniform standards
for courtroom interpreters to replace the hodgepodge system that exists
today and varies from county to county.

In Baldwin County, for instance, court officials use Spanish speakers to
interpret for Latinos who are charged with crimes. But Presiding Circuit
Judge James Reid said the court does not demand any certification of
those interpreters.

"It's pretty much informal," he said. "So far, over here, it's been OK.
We muddle through. It's patchwork."

Mobile lawyer Dom Soto, one of the few Spanish-speaking attorneys in the
metro area, said he thinks Baldwin and other counties have a much bigger
problem than they believe.

"I think that they're in denial," he said.

Soto noted that the Foley area long has been a magnet for migrant
farmers and folks in the hospitality industry, and he said large-scale
construction projects like the RSA tower in downtown Mobile have drawn
Hispanic laborers to the region.

He criticized the notion that Americans should not accommodate
Spanish-speakers.

"The reality is that you have to deal with the issue. You wouldn't say,
'Oh, you're deaf. Our language is oral,'" he said.

Soto, who often volunteers as an interpreter for courts in Mobile on
cases where he does not represent a client, said judges often do not
know defendants cannot speak English until they arrive in court. He said
that ought to be flagged as soon as Spanish speakers get booked into jail.

The problem is even worse in rural areas, where sometimes no one in
authority speaks fluent Spanish, Soto said. He recalled representing a
migrant worker in Covington County who was accused of murder in 2004.
Law enforcement investigators, relying on someone with high school
Spanish, had coaxed a confession out of the suspect.

Soto said he laughed when he heard the tape.

"Half of it was gibberish. Half of it was open to interpretation," he said.

Soto's client, Antonio Rivera Hernandez, ended up pleading guilty to
hindering prosecution and getting a sentence of time served.

Maria Papp, who has been interpreting in courtrooms for more than two
decades and regularly assists the federal court in Mobile, said she has
stopped working for state courts amid a dispute over fees. What they pay
interpreters is not reasonable, said Papp, who declined to discuss her
fees.

Papp, a native of Argentina who moved to the United States in 1964 and
later became a citizen, said she is concerned that Alabama lacks uniform
standards for people who serve as interpreters.

"Some of the comments I hear from some of the attorneys is that they're
dealing with non-qualified interpreters," she said.

Federal courts do have a uniform system governing interpreters. The
court must, whenever "reasonably possible" use only interpreters who
have been certified by the U.S. Administrative Office of Courts. Jeff
Reinert, the chief deputy clerk in the Mobile-based federal court, said
the interpreters must be able to provide simultaneous translations,
which means they speak the Spanish at the same time the English is
spoken and vice versa. He said he often calls on interpreters from New
Orleans and elsewhere since Alabama has only one certified interpreter.

For about the last year, the court has had a phone system that allows
for long-distance interpretation for non-trial hearings. Full-time
interpreters assigned to large federal courts in cities like Miami and
Los Angeles translate via telephone for courts like Mobile's that do not
have certified bilingual staffers.

With the phone system, an interpreter translates English into Spanish
for the defendant through a telephone ear piece and translates testimony
from the accused into English for the court.

Since the staff interpreters are federal employees, the government does
not incur any extra cost when they serve courts in Mobile and elsewhere.
For fiscal year 2006, the federal government spent $19,612 on court
interpreters in Mobile when federal employees were not available.

"We certainly bend over backward to accommodate these guys," Reinert
said. "That's the big thing over the last few years with the
(Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts), and that's why they've
funded us with the equipment like it has."

*English, Spanish and legalese *

Scott Vowell, the presiding judge of the Jefferson County Circuit Court,
said resource limitations make an exact replica of the federal system
unlikely in Alabama courts. But he said he would like to see the state
Administrative Office of Courts adopt universal certification standards
for interpreters.

Fluency in Spanish and English is not enough, he said, since legalese is
almost another language in itself.

"The problem is, in a specialized area like the law, somebody can be
very fluent in both English and Spanish and still have difficulty
communicating legal terms," he said. "You almost need somebody who is a
paralegal or has some legal training."

Padilla-Madden, the Birmingham lawyer, echoed those concerns. She
pointed to the Tuscaloosa rape case. She said she thinks she would have
trouble making a Spanish-speaking client understand Miranda rights and
other legal principles.

"Spanish is my native language, and I'm an attorney. It's not that
simple," she said.

Vowell said the Jefferson County Commission hired a bilingual paralegal
aid about six months ago who is on call to interpret in the courts as
needed. And he said she conducts Spanish classes for judges and other
personnel two times a week.

Vowell said he handles workers' compensation cases in Jefferson County
and, as a result, sees many Hispanics who have been hurt on the job.
Unlike criminal cases, where all defendants are guaranteed a lawyer,
workers' comp claimants often have no lawyer, he said.

"So many of these people take our most dangerous jobs, and a lot of them
are getting hurt and seeking compensation," he said.

Legal Services Alabama, funded by federal grants, provides legal
assistance and referrals to low-income folks throughout the state. The
group offers a Spanish-language hotline but has few bilingual staffers
for it.

Michael Congiardo, who is serving as vice chairman of the bar committee,
works at the call center located in downtown Mobile. He said he is the
only Spanish-speaking lawyer in any of the four call centers. Call
centers in Birmingham and Montgomery have Spanish-speaking intake
screeners, but the one in Huntsville does not, he said.

"There are states that are ahead of us in addressing this issue," said
Congiardo, who majored in Spanish at Vanderbilt University and spent a
semester in Madrid.

Padilla-Madden said the state bar is interested in hearing not just from
lawyers but also from social service organizations and other groups that
work with the Latino community.

Michele Prockup, director of Catholic Social Services in Baldwin County,
said she was unaware of the bar effort but added that it is a good idea.
She said she hopes this year to get a staffer certified by the Board of
Immigration Appeals as a paralegal in order to help Hispanics navigate
complex immigration laws.

Prockup said some of the Hispanics her group has helped have told horror
stories of getting ripped off by people claiming to help them with legal
or documentation matters. The Spanish-speakers, not necessarily lawyers,
will charge money to serve as advocates.

One person, she said, told her a man had taken a $150 fee to apply for
an international driver's license.

"They're just shysters. They take their money and don't deliver the
services," she said. "It incenses me when people take advantage of other
people because of their language."


© 2007 The Mobile Register

© 2007 al.com All Rights Reserved.