Opinion ID: 164554
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: facts

Text: Alarcon was in one Christian Saenz-Sanchez’s apartment when the SWAT team entered it to execute a search warrant. The SWAT team handcuffed and arrested Alarcon and took him to the police station. The parties contest whether or not Alarcon understood the Miranda rights read to him in English. A Spanish speaking officer testified that he asked Alarcon, in Spanish, whether he preferred to be interviewed in English or -2- Spanish. On cross examination, the officer did not recall whether he also offered to read Alarcon his Miranda rights in Spanish. The officer testified that Alarcon preferred to be interviewed in English. The officer did not, however, ask Alarcon how well he understood English. Alarcon, on the other hand, testified that the police just spoke to him in English without ever giving him the option of being given his Miranda warnings or interrogation in Spanish. Alarcon testified that the police did not start speaking Spanish to him until the latter part of the interview, when they realized that he could not understand them. Alarcon answered “yes” to the following question on the Miranda waiver form: “Do you read, write, and understand English?” After signing the Miranda waiver, Alarcon confessed to the police, at first by answering in English, and later in Spanish. At his court appearances, Alarcon answered the magistrate judges in simple English, primarily “yes” and “no” answers, and declined an interpreter on at least one occasion. Alarcon explained that he declined the interpreter because the two defendants who had hearings before him were only asked questions that could be answered with a yes or a no, and he was “trying to look good in court.” Alarcon answered “yes, sir” when one magistrate judge asked him if he spoke English fluently. Alarcon testified, however, that he only understood the court proceedings after they were interpreted for him. -3- Alarcon testified that he understood neither the Miranda warnings he was given nor the waiver he signed, but that he “kn[e]w that it was laws.” Alarcon claimed that he can only understand “bits and pieces” of spoken English and must translate word for word in order to attempt to understand sentences. He testified that he can only read some English words and that his wife translates English correspondence for him. Alarcon noted that he often feigns to understand what is being said to him in English because he is ashamed to admit his lack of English proficiency. Similarly, Nubia Millan, Alarcon’s wife, testified that he has difficulty understanding English and that she acts as his interpreter. Millan testified that Alarcon would answer the court in simple English words such as “yes,” and then turn to her and ask her to interpret what had transpired. After court appearances, Millan had to interpret the substance of the hearings into Spanish for Alarcon to comprehend them. She testified that Alarcon will pretend to understand those who speak to him in English in order to appear respectful and cooperative.