By Bryan Miller and Darlin Navarrete
WOODLAND, CA – A Spanish-speaking man appeared in front of Judge Sonia Cortés here this week at Yolo County Superior Court, and because of his inability to fluently understand English, he was appointed an interpreter by the court in order to ensure that he understood the terms that he was accepting.
But that didn’t quite work out for the court or the accused.
Not only was the court interpreter unable to translate every word for the accused, the court was also unable to accommodate him by providing Spanish copies of important court documents.
The accused came to the court to enter a plea deal worked out by Defense Attorney James Granucci and Deputy District Attorney Van der Hoek for the accused’s charges for driving under the influence and drunk driving, both of which the court report states come with an enhancement for “excessive blood alcohol or refusal.”
This misdemeanor DUI charge also involved the accused driving without a license nor registration.
Judge Sonia Cortés emphasized the significance of this in relation to the accused’s immigration status, stating if the accused was not a citizen he could face the consequence of deportation or rejection from a naturalization process.
For the first half of the hearing the accused was being aided by an interpreter who then went on break and was replaced by a different interpreter for the reading of the plea deal. During this time the assigned interpreter was not able to translate everything stated by the judge and attorneys coherently because of the speed at which the judge was speaking.
There was also a dearth of Spanish documents to give to the accused, including one for Work Project that would allow the accused to bypass the 14 days in jail he was sentenced to by the judge.
The plea deal was also not available in Spanish—that meant the accused only received English copies of both documents and verbal translation in the courtroom.
The accused ultimately pleaded “no contest” with an admission to enhancement 2A “excessive blood alcohol or refusal” as per the plea agreement.
Judge Cortés sentenced him to probation, a $1,879 fine to which the judge agreed on a payment plan of $100 a month starting Feb. 1, 2024.
If the accused failed to be accepted in the Work Project program he would have to report to the Yolo County Jail on March 7 at 9 a.m. to serve 14 days. This was all communicated to him through the use of a court-appointed interpreter.
