Interesting article from VLW:
Unethical language interpreting during a police interrogation of a Waynesboro murder suspect may prevent the man’s confession from reaching a courtroom, said a defense attorney and experts.
During a Waynesboro detective’s interrogation of David Luna Sanchez in June, a Spanish interpreter failed to relay the defendant’s request that an attorney be present, an interview transcript shows.
Moments into the interview, Sanchez asked for an attorney upon hearing a reading of his “Miranda rights,” which inform a criminal suspect of the right to remain silent and to be represented by an attorney.
“Yes, I would like to have a lawyer present here now to tell him – well, whatever it would be,” Sanchez said.
“Okay,” the interpreter responded in Spanish. “Listen to what I’m saying. She only wants to listen to the side of your story.”
Moran, who declined comment, never learned Sanchez asked for an attorney, according to the transcript.
The interpreter’s fumbling could cause the entire interrogation to be thrown out as evidence, including portions where Sanchez described stabbing a man in self-defense, said defense attorney Scott Hansen.
“At the end of the day, the best I can hope … is to keep out my client’s statements about himself,” Hansen said.
The interrogation took place at the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office in Florida several days after Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, fled Waynesboro in a primer black Ford Taurus in the wake of the June 27 stabbing death of Eduardo “Piku” Herrera, 39, of 260 N. Commerce Ave., police said.
Sanchez is charged with second-degree murder. Authorities charged a co-defendant, Abiel Vazquez, 19, of Waynesboro, with principle in the second degree.
At a preliminary hearing, Vazquez testified he was present at the stabbing and later watched Sanchez clean a knife and throw it into the woods.
Authorities would not name the interpreter.
After hearing the dialogue from the transcript, two interpretation experts and a law expert critiqued the procedure.
A member of the American Translators Association (ATA) described the interview as “a messy situation.”
“Your role as an interpreter is strictly to translate exactly what the question is and what the answer is,” said Mary van den Bosch, of the regional ATA chapter. “No sidebars, no nothing.”
“The fact that the interpreter did not interpret what [Sanchez] said is troublesome,” Dann said. “The interpreter’s job is not to be an advocate for either side.”
Dann, chairwoman of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, said it’s important to serve as a linguistic link without embellishing or explaining.
From the first pages of the transcript to the last, Sanchez asked questions that showed he did not understand what was happening.
He declined to sign a waiver of his rights and repeatedly asked the interpreter about an attorney.
“All this, is it going to be given to a lawyer?” he asked on page 119.
“I don’t know,” the interpreter replied. “I am just translating … your side of the story.”
When Hansen saw the transcript, he described a moment of red flags and lightning bolts. Still, the defense attorney said there might be portions that will benefit Sanchez.
“Even though there may be a violation to Miranda, we may not want to exclude [the transcript],” Hansen said.
Waynesboro police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Walker said officers are supposed to stop questioning a suspect once they hear an “unequivocal” request for an attorney – a point reinforced by John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville.
The institute, which gained national recognition for pursuing a lawsuit against President Bill Clinton in 1997, provides free legal services in constitutional and human rights cases.
“A morally responsible prosecutor now will probably halt this,” Whitehead said. “I think at the point when [Sanchez] asked for a lawyer, the law is pretty clear.”
He described the situation as unique because the investigator never learned about the request. Whitehead said serious problems can arise with language barriers.
“When someone doesn’t know the language you have to tread even lighter,” he said. “It sounds like the interpreter was doing an investigation – it’s dangerous stuff.”
Sanchez is scheduled to appear in court later this month.
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