Prosecutor Appeals Ruling That Dismissed Rape Charges Against Liberian Man Because Interpreter Could Not Be Found
Seems to me that in three years, he could have learned English for crying out loud.
Uh, if the guy attended high school and college in the U.S., he should be pretty fluent in English by now.
This judge should be removed from office for letting such a heinous pedophile go free.
I heard a part of a news story last week that said after the media got a hold of the ruling several reporters were able to find interpreters in a matter of a few phone calls.
I was just talking about this case with some colleagues this morning.
I absolutely would appeal and try to make law with this case. The PC practice of providing court interpreters at taxpayer expense is maddening. Some of these interpreters charge as much as $100.00 per hour, which is way more than anyone else sitting in the courtroom makes, particularly the Judge.
Does anyone really think that if we were arrested for a crime in China, or France, or Mexico, they would be bending over backwards to provide English interpreters for us?
This is beside the point that the guy could definitely speak English!!
How in the world did this judge become a lawyer much less a judge? She has no common sense at all?
This man was educated here in America....he speaks very good English. Thank you Bill and Hillary Clinton for demanding translators be made available in court rooms, hospitals, class rooms, prison and on and on ad nauseum. Political Correctness marches on...............
This is not an uncommon problem, and is usually dealt with by judges in different ways. For example, the Dineh (Navajo) language is so complex, that a translator at a trial may say “untranslatable”, repeatedly, for a minute or more before the judge asks for a re-phrase, until they discover some means of expressing the testimony in English.
In this case, the judge could order an expert in similar African languages to try and set up a dialogue with the defendant, to be able to convey the major concepts of the trial to him. Though circumstantial evidence will be essential, as well as the testimony of other witnesses, it should be no harder to try the defendant that if he were being tried in absentia.
“”improper” IMPROPER????? Should be “criminal”. This judge needs to be thrown off the bench.
I expect this will indeed be overturned. The defendant’s lack of a speedy trial was due first and foremost to his own fraudulently-based demand for an interpreter. Therefore, despite the additional error of the trial court in allowing this blatant fraud to delay the trial, the primary cause of the delay was the defendant’s fraudulent representations to the court, and he should not avoid trial on account of the delay caused by himself.
I guess there is someone left in Maryland still with a brain.
Wonders never cease.
fox news reporting that he speaks and understands English just fine. saying they know because they interviewed him ;) in English.
He went to school for three years. He is in an English-speaking country. The only words he really needs to know are: “I did it”. And then he can read, “Pack Your Bags” and “You are being deported.” I can help him.
How hard can it be to explain?
“One drug will put you to sleep, and then the next one will stop your heart.” That’s all the translation this guy should get!
Aside from the obvious fraud and idiocy that’s been demonstrated by the defendant, defense counsel, and judge, the most preposterous thing about this is that the obscure dialect the defendant claims to need an interpreter for simply doesn’t have words for many of the legal concepts involved in the case. It is not a language in which sophisticated activity of any sort is conducted.
It wouldn’t have made any difference if he’d gone to college in Liberia, rather than the US. There are precisely two post-secondary educational institutions in Liberia. The language of instruction in both is English. Feel free to peruse their websites. You won’t need a translator.
University of Liberia http://www.tlcafrica.com/lu/lu.htm
Cuttington University http://www.cuttington.org/
And needless to say, any college-preparatory high school in Liberia would have to teach primarily or exclusively in English.
So Judge Dipstick, if you were on the fence with this and the decision was SO difficult and the community was SO concerned, why did you take the side of an alleged perv over a 7 yo girl that had been repeatedly raped? Aren't you lefties always blathering on about doing right "for the children"?
Oops! That could not be -- MD4Bush was done by some slick deceivers... Katherine Savage is a true Democratic Lame brain...
Predominantly Democratic counties produce abnominations such as Judge Savage... Thank God I am in a part of the country that is conservative (and now Republican)...