Link: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/Lost-in-Translation-at-the-Monserrate-Trial-63693752.html

Lost in Translation at the Monserrate Trial

Witness corrects Spanish language translator -- in English
By TIM MINTON
Updated 1:56 PM EDT, Fri, Oct 9, 2009

It may have been a courtroom first: a witness, who apparently needed
Spanish translation, stopped her testimony to correct the court-
appointed translator -- in English.

The assault trial of State Senator Hiram Monserrate was brought to a
halt this afternoon when defense witness Jasmina Rojas, an  Ecuadoran
immigrant who is the cousin of the alleged victim, stopped her
testimony to complain that her words were being improperly translated.

"I've never had this happen before!" exclaimed veteran Queens Supreme
Court Judge William Erlbaum.

It happened over a key word -- and issue -- in the trial. Rojas is
Karla Giraldo's cousin and was with Giraldo at night last December
hours before Giraldo allegedly was slashed with broken glass by
boyfriend Monserrate. The senator's defense attorney called Rojas to
verify Giraldo's story of having been drunk.

Matters got sticky when the interpreter translated Rojas as saying
Giraldo had been "happy." When a prosecutor who was cross-examining
pounced on the difference between "happy" and "drunk" (the less drunk
Giraldo was, the better for the district attorney), Rojas herself
objected.  The witness' English evidently is good enough to know that
she meant "drunk."

That caused attorneys on both sides to ask that Rojas continue in
English, led a bemused Judge Erlbaum to ask the interpreter if she
wanted to be replaced and generally brought the proceedings to a
snickering halt for 12 minutes.

Outside the courtroom later, one court officer with knowledge of
Ecuadoran culture said that people there will often use the Spanish
word for "happy" when they mean "drunk," and add a tipsy hand gesture
to convey full meaning. But hand gestures are useless at a legal
proceeding that allows only spoken words.

So far defense attorneys have no plan to call that officer as a
witness to enlighten Judge Erlbaum, who's deciding the case without a
jury.

After an abruptly called recess, Rojas returned to the stand to
continue ... in Spanish.  With the same interpreter.