Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2001
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2001 The Evansville Courier
Contact:  http://courier.evansville.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/138
Author: Byron Rohrig

DRUG TRIAL SKIRTS LANGUAGE BARRIER

Interpreters Providing Running Translation For Hispanic Defendants

A technical challenge probably unprecedented in Evansville legal history 
emerged in the weeks leading to a federal methamphetamine conspiracy trial, 
set to go to the jury today. That's because three of the six defendants are 
Hispanics who speak and understand little English.

Under the Constitution, criminal defendants are guaranteed the right to 
understand trial proceedings - from first word to last word.

Final arguments were set to begin this morning after final instructions to 
the jury by U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young.

The government alleges the six defendants were part of a criminal scheme to 
funnel methamphetamine from Mexico to Southern Indiana through Miguel Angel 
"Mike" Quintanilla of Dallas, the alleged international link for the 
trafficking.

Quintanilla faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted as charged. The 
other five defendants could face life in prison if convicted.

Defense attorneys called none of their six clients to testify and summoned 
only one other witness - Drug Enforcement Administration agent Michael 
Kress - before resting their case late Monday afternoon.

The prosecution rested its case shortly after the lunch recess.

Language barriers posed a tougher problem before the start of this trial, 
compared with the challenges in the last notable bilingual case in federal 
court here.

That was in 1998, when Californian Daniel Ramirez-Torres was tried on drug 
charges. An interpreter was necessary during that two-day trial, but 
courtroom deputy Dana Schuler needed only to schedule a competent 
translator who could whisper the proceedings - in Spanish - into 
Ramirez-Torres' ear.

But how do you handle not just one, but multiple defendants who don't know 
English?

Schuler contacted Indiana's premier trial interpreter, Orencio Diaz, about 
three months before the start of the trial. Diaz, 59, who left his native 
Cuba at 19 just after the Castro takeover, had translated for 
Ramirez-Torres' trial. Diaz suggested electronic interpretation equipment.

That's why courtroom visitors have noticed three men at the defense table - 
defendants Leonel Moreno Jr., Alan Martino-Guzman and Abelardo Lalo-Mendoza 
- - wearing headphones continuously while court is in session.

By contrast, Diaz and his assistant interpreter, Karina Reitz, virtually 
blend into the woodwork while they whisper translation of the trial that 
Moreno, Martino-Guzman and Lalo-Mendoza hear in their headsets.

"It's working very well," Diaz said of the system, which consists in part 
of stereo headphone and personal monitor amplifiers.

"The first time I saw Orencio work, I said, 'Ohhh,'" Schuler marveled. "You 
don't even know he's in the courtroom."

That's partly due to the discipline Diaz follows and teaches others to 
observe. He said he tells trainees: "Think of yourself not as a person, but 
as a machine . your job is to hear one language, and put it into another."

Diaz and Reitz, a native Argentinian and instructor in Spanish at Indiana 
State University in Terre Haute, split up the translation load.

There definitely is need for two of us there," said Diaz, who is the chief 
of Spanish interpreters for Marion County Superior Courts in Indianapolis. 
"If I have to do it myself, I might lose my voice after two days."

Both Diaz and Reitz are simultaneous interpreters - they translate without 
delay from one language to another. It's a skill Diaz said he developed 
after two years on the job in Marion County courts. It means no 
translation-based delays in the trial - even when a witness who speaks only 
Spanish takes the stand.

Diaz and Reitz also interpret for clients and their attorneys. That is 
important to defendants Martino-Guzman and Lalo-Mendoza. Moreno's lawyer, 
Ed Malavenda of Indianapolis, is bilingual.

Diaz, who has been interpreting court proceedings, says the job requires 
being fluent not in just two languages, but four.

"Few except attorneys learn the language of the court, but we had to learn 
the English legal language and the Spanish legal language," Diaz explained. 
"You've got to become acquainted with all the terms specific for legal 
proceedings in both languages."

The demand for staff with his skills has mushroomed since Diaz started 
court interpreting in 1984. Then he was employed by a local service agency 
at the Hispanic Center in Indianapolis.

Now, Diaz says, he has one other full-time Spanish interpreter on his staff 
and four part-timers "who work almost full-time."

Marion County, he said, has also seen trials involving native speakers of 
Vietnamese, Korean and several Slavic languages who knew no English.

Also on trial in the Evansville methamphetamine trial are Quintanilla's 
wife, Deneise, and Alfredo Ceballos.

Deneise Quintanilla, Moreno, Martino-Guzman, Lalo-Mendoza and Ceballos also 
could get life terms if convicted.
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MAP posted-by: Beth