Spanish interpreters' quality questioned

Changes sought in hiring, oversight to ensure qualified help for defendants

RALEIGH -- An Alamance County interpreter resigned after being accused of posting racist remarks about Mexicans on a white supremacist Web site.

A Davidson County interpreter faces charges of representing himself as a lawyer to swindle Spanish-speaking defendants out of hundreds of dollars.

A Person County interpreter was a convicted sex offender.

These are some of the people upon whom North Carolina has been depending to ensure that Spanish-speaking defendants' rights aren't violated in court.

Although state court officials pay interpreters up to $35 an hour, they have no authority to select or screen them beforehand or discipline them later.

By law, local judges hire and fire interpreters. But with only 41 certified interpreters for 100 counties, judges often hire any Spanish speaker at hand without having any way to gauge their proficiency, ethics or criminal history.

"The majority of interpreters just get a check. There's no quality control done," said Burlington lawyer Ebher Rossi, who complained about the Alamance interpreter.

Greg Stahl, senior deputy director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, wants that to change. He has asked the legislature for an additional $775,000 to pay for interpreters and to revamp how interpreters are hired. In its budget, the state Senate included the money and a provision giving oversight of interpreters to the AOC's director.

Those measures are not in the House version of the budget, however. Stahl hopes to persuade House leaders that they should be included or passed as part of another bill.

Stahl wants interpreters to be appointed, much like lawyers who represent poor criminal defendants. Interpreters would sign a contract with the state, attend orientation and ethics training, and undergo a criminal background check. Judges would hire only interpreters who had done so. Then, Stahl said, AOC officials could respond to complaints.

The state's continuing influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants has created a need for qualified, ethical interpreters.

Between 1990 and 2004, North Carolina's Hispanic population increased 574 percent, from 76,726 to an estimated 517,617. As of 2004, Hispanics accounted for 6.1 percent of North Carolina's 8.5 million residents. That same year, there were 136,466 charges filed against Hispanic defendants.

Starting in 2000, the AOC began certifying interpreters, but only 23 percent of those who took the certification exams passed.

The criteria

To be certified, an interpreter must take a written test, attend a two-day ethics seminar and present four letters of recommendations from court officials before he can sit for an oral exam. While AOC officials have asked judges to approve payments of $35 an hour for certified interpreters and $25 an hour for those uncertified, Stahl said, judges aren't following the request. Paying uncertified interpreters $35 an hour, Stahl said, removes any incentive for them to get certified.

Judges fill the gap by hiring uncertified interpreters and tapping Spanish speakers in the courtroom for help.

"In counties where there are not a lot of bilingual people, there are folks who have very limited Spanish-speaking skills passing for court interpreters," said Ilana Dubester, interim executive director of Hispanic Liaison in Siler City and a state-certified interpreter. "There is a saying among interpreters, 'Just because you have two hands doesn't mean you know how to play the piano.' There are people's lives at stake here. This is a very important and very specific type of interpreting."