Thread: SC: Court interpreters in demand, expensive

http://www.thestate.com/154/story/36209.html

Posted on Sun, Apr. 15, 2007

Court interpreters in demand, expensive

By ADAM BEAM and JOHN MONK - abeam@thestate.com, jmonk@thestate.com

Federal court cases requiring interpreters — many involving Mexicans accused of bringing illegal drugs into South Carolina — are skyrocketing.

Since 2000, 684 defendants have required interpreters in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina — more than seven times the number of defendants who needed an interpreter from 1985 to 2000.

Overall, since 1985, about half of all defendants requiring an interpreter were facing drug charges, the most of any offense.

One pending federal interpreter case has 24 defendants accused of trafficking “black tar” heroin from Mexico to South Carolina. Translating the evidence, which includes 540 hours of recordings and nearly 10,000 pages of documents, will cost taxpayers about $500,000.

“It’s the first (case) of this size that I’ve seen in South Carolina,” said Elizabeth Carico, a Charlotte-based, federally certified court interpreter who is one of the translators working on the case.

The court’s docket isn’t slowing down. In 2006, federal prosecutors opened cases involving interpreters against:

• Seven Hispanic men accused of operating a large cocaine ring in Jasper and Beaufort counties

• Five Hispanic men accused of moving multikilograms of cocaine from Atlanta into Greenville and Spartanburg counties

• Three Hispanic men accused of smuggling cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into Greer; police recovered an Uzi machine pistol.

“It’s certainly a growth industry,” said Judge Joe Anderson, the chief federal judge for South Carolina. “It’s a growing part of our budget each year.”

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405. Reach Monk at (803) 771-8344.

Maybe instead of being provided interpreters at taxpayer expense they could just do what they do here when they need an interpreter to do their business, like buy a car or house or see the doctor. They could just bring their toddlers or young children to translate. School day? No problem , they can do what they do when they need the kids to make a purchase and just keep them out. Every day here I see kids translating for parents when they should be in school . Seriously, if these people have been selling drugs they have the money to pay their own interpreter and their own attorney, or their family could sell their stuff to come up with the $$$. Most speak English better than they let on anyways, when it suits their needs. Need an expensive car stereo and the salesperson only speaks English? They manage then.

And the cost to the American taxpayer just keeps rising.