“Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?”
.Bravo! Judge Olszewski gives defendants the best advice of their lives
A Pennsylvania judge known for creative sentencing has ordered three Spanish-speaking men to learn English or go to jail.
The men, ranging in age from 17 to 22, facing prison for criminal conspiracy to commit robbery, can remain on parole if they learn to read and write English, earn their GEDs and get full-time jobs, Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said.
Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez and Rafael Guzman-Mateo, plus a fourth defendant, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario, all needed translators when they pleaded guilty Tuesday, Fox News reports.
“Do you think we are going to supply you with a translator all of your life?” the judge asked them.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear those words repeated in Arizona courtrooms?
March 28, 2008 at 11:34 am
With Barbara Rodriguez Mundell as presiding judge of Maricopa County Superior Courts,
http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/superiorCourt/pjWelcome.asp
I wouldn’t hold my breathe waiting for judge’s wisdom to be emulated within our court system. Good thought, though.
BTW, she would be the responsible party to answer a question that was posed on this site a while back, when the question was raised about concealing all of the pertinent information and photos of the county superior court judges. This was information that had been readily accessible for years, and is still available for all other officials and elected officers. The judges make a point of saying they are on the ballot for retention, although not one of them has been removed in decades. If they are on the ballot, shouldn’t the citizens know who they are?