Courtroom romance threatens child sex case (of former Marine captain)

[alp227]

Source: Los Angeles Times

A costly and emotionally charged child sex case in which prosecutors traveled to Cambodia and paid to fly frightened young victims to the United States is under fire by defense attorneys amid allegations that court interpreters were biased in favor of the prosecution.

One of the interpreters assigned to the case of Michael Joseph Pepe admitted being involved in a sexual relationship with the lead investigator around the time the case went to trial in May 2008, according to documents filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

Pepe, a retired U.S. Marine captain who was working as a teacher in Cambodia, was convicted of having sex with seven girls ages 9 to 12. The girls, speaking through Vietnamese and Khmer interpreters, testified that Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them in his compound in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

After Pepe's conviction, prosecutors discovered and disclosed the relationship between interpreter Ann Luong Spiratos and Gary J. Phillips, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Following the disclosure, Pepe's defense attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer for a new trial, arguing that the "secret … sexual relationship" between Spiratos and Phillips resulted in skewed interpretations by Spiratos and a colleague, which aided the prosecution and undermined the defense.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-sex-prosecution-20101120,0,203690,full.story

[bluedigger]

1. So the defense didn't have a fluent interpreter present?

:shrug:

[boppers]

2. The defense had their own interpreter inspect the transcripts.

As far as why they didn't have one present, I think the assumption was that the interpreters were a court-provided, neutral, party.

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"An expert hired by the defense to analyze the interpretations done at trial found numerous discrepancies between what interpreters said aloud and the witnesses' actual testimony, court papers state.

In one instance, a girl's statement: "I didn't sleep because I was afraid of him," was translated to: "I meant that I wouldn't let him insert his penis in my vagina," defense experts said.

Some of the allegedly bogus interpretations were "at times so divergent from the actual responses that they cannot simply be attributed to good faith misunderstandings," Brown contended.
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[bluedigger]

4. OK, thanks!

Dude needed Perry Mason or Matlock in there with him...

[jancantor]

3. It's irrelevant

The interpreters for court must be specially certified, and their impartiality must be beyond reproach. They are the ones who interpret for the OFFICIAL RECORD. Among other things, that record is what is relied upon by the finder of fact, as well as the finder of law (jury and judge respectively usually), as well as if there is an appeal.

This isn't even a close case. It's a total #$(#$(#$ for the prosecution.

[bluedigger]

5. Understood and agreed.

[EFerrari]

6. Wow. When I was translating in court, I only worried about being

late.

lol

[Blue_Tires]

7. and now the idiots are gonna let the (alleged) pederast walk

i thought folks were smarter than this...