Kelvin D. Filer
Compton
Judge Hobbs was very disrespectful towards an indigenous defendant who had the wrong language interpreter at his preliminary hearing. The defense attorney in that case was attempting, unsuccessfully, to interview the Defendant in Spanish.. In fact, it turned out that Spanish was not the defendant’s native language. His first language was K’iche, an indigenous language from Guatemala. When the attorney asked for a continuance, because a K’iche interpreter was not available, Judge Hobbs seemed visibly displeased. She attempted to question the defendant via the Spanish interpreter – in an awkward and uncomfortable exchange – which only further confused the defendant. When, not surprisingly, Judge Hobbs’ efforts did not yield the result she wanted, she blamed the Spanish interpreter.
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