Thread: Top court revives charges against Vai speaker

Top court revives charges against Vai speaker
BARBARA GRZINCIC
Managing Editor/Law
March 14, 2008 1:01 PM
Maryland’s highest court has revived child sex abuse charges that were dismissed last year after the trial court had trouble finding an interpreter who spoke the immigrant defendant’s native language.

Mahamu D. Kanneh’s case was dismissed last year, nearly three years after his arrest on suspicion of sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl, when a judge in Montgomery County Circuit Court found he had been denied his right to a speedy trial.

While part of the delay was due to DNA testing and competency evaluation, much of the delay was attributed to problems finding an interpreter who spoke Kanneh’s native language, a Liberian dialect called Vai.

The state challenged the dismissal and the Court of Appeals decided to take the case itself, without waiting for the intermediate appellate court to act.

In today’s decision, the top court said the dismissal was not warranted because Kanneh failed to object to any of the delays except the final one. That delay — from Feb. 26 to July 30, 2007 — was granted because a Vai interpreter had been found but was recuperating from major surgery.

“Although the delay in this case was significant, in light of the complex nature of the case, the length of the delay does not weigh heavily against the State. Because there was no bad faith on the part of the State in securing or failing to secure an interpreter, which was the primary reason for the delay, this factor does not weigh against the State,â€

Kanneh was ordered deported in November, but his current location was not immediately known.

Well, if he is still in the US WHERE NOBODY SPEAKS VAI, how does he survive? Yeah, right. He lied. He really speaks English. I remember this story. I remember reading that he was overheard speaking English out of court. Liar.