Opinion ID: 1424948
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Competence and Bias Issues[15]

Text: When Ko's trial began, there were two sets of interpreters. One set had been retained by the United States Attorney's office to provide interpreter services for government witnesses. The other set had been appointed by the trial court. In mid-trial, and after questions had been raised about the impartiality of the government's interpreters, the trial court decided that it should enter into a subcontract with the government's interpreters. Ko contends that D.C.Code § 31-2704 required the trial judge to make a separate on-the-record determination, with respect to each of the fourteen witnesses who testified through an interpreter, that the particular interpreter was able to provide effective communication with that witness. D.C.Code § 31-2704 provides as follows: Before appointing an interpreter, an appointing authority shall make a preliminary determination that the interpreter is able to accurately communicate with and translate information to and from the communication-impaired person involved. If the interpreter is not able to provide effective communication with the communication-impaired person, the appointing authority shall appoint another qualified interpreter. Although this code section requires the appointing authority, prior to appointment of an interpreter, to make a preliminary determination that the interpreter is able to accurately communicate with and translate information to and from the communication-impaired person involved, the record does not reflect that the trial court carried out this statutory mandate when it decided to enter into a subcontract with the government's interpreters. Nor does the record indicate any objection by defense counsel. Therefore, we review this matter for plain error. The government interpreters who were assigned a broader role as court interpreters continued to be paid directly by United States Attorney's office and were required to report daily to that office as a condition of payment. Mainly because of this procedure, Ko argues on appeal, that the interpreters were biased against him. This contention was not raised in the trial court, and we review it for plain error. First, the government now concedes that the payment process constituted error, but not plain error, once the government's interpreters were assigned to a broader role by the court as interpreters both for the defendants and the government's witnesses. Second, however, we see nothing on the record before us to support Ko's contention that the interpreters who were not put through a preliminary determination of competence performed inadequately, or that those who were paid by the government were biased. Although there were one or two minor instances in which the accuracy of the interpretation was questioned, there were no material flaws in the translation. When accusations of bias were raised by Ko, the trial court addressed them and found they had no merit. For example, when Ko described two of the interpreters as known friends of government witness Tony Chang, the trial judge conducted voir dire of the interpreters and found that the accusations were not true and mostly nonsense. Similarly, the trial judge determined no bias flowed from a contact between the interpreter and an F.B.I. agent during the defense cross-examination of a government witness. Nonetheless, the judge gave instructions that the interpreters should not talk with persons connected with the trial, including the F.B.I. and District police officers. Third, on the record before us, we believe that the trial judge managed to resolve complex interpretation issues without compromising minimal requirements of fundamental fairness, as reflected in the Interpreter Act. Defense counsel both acquiesced in the trial court's solutions to a complicated problem and failed to object to procedures for payment of interpreters retained initially by the United States Attorney's office. Therefore, we see no plain error. Finally, we note that after the en banc oral argument, the government called this court's attention to Administrative Order No. 98-12 (March 31, 1998), issued by the Chief Judge of the Superior Court, the Honorable Eugene N. Hamilton ordering: That in all criminal and juvenile delinquency proceedings before the Superior Court, any person who interprets for the record the testimony of, any hearing-impaired or non-English speaking person shall be appointed by the Court, and compensated by the Court. [16] For the foregoing reasons, Ko's convictions must be affirmed. [17] So ordered.