Thursday, December 13, 2007
Somerset Infant death case still languishing
Almost one whole year ago,a 23 yr old employee of Custom Pak in Westover walked off the line,into the restroom and delivered a baby that she subsequently tossed into the trash bin.Florentine Olivera has been in the Somerset County Detention Center all this time,held without bond and and has not been evaulated yet for mental competency because of a massive language barrier.She does not speak fluent Spanish or English.I know,your'e thinking WTF?Apparently Ms. Olivera hails from a remote region of Mexico that has its own dialect,called "Mextico" and no one person has ben found that can translate Mextico into English.In my opinion,this just illustrates the HUGE difficulties that unchecked immigration has brought to the table.Just last year,a sex offender in Montgomery County was able to duck and dodge the system because he spoke some Nigerian dialect that no one could translate.I know I am gonna take alot of heat for saying this,but we need to mandate that when you immigrate to this country,you must learn English!!Most langauage barriers are easy to accomodate in court,but with so many people coming in from all over the world,sooner or later there is bound to be problems,like this one.When and if they find someone who can translate,who pays for it?Taxpayers!
On a personal note,I cannot fathom what this woman was thinking and I have little sympathy for her.Furthermore,most of the Hispanic population are devoutly Catholic and that is why I just dont understand how she was able to do something that goes against everything in the faith.And it also begs the question-if she was able to spit this baby out,kill and stash it and be back to her work station in 14 minutes,as reported-has she done this before?And how many times?????
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU. For making the comment about immigrants speaking our language. Go to another country and ask them to accomodate us in English----they will laugh at us. It should be a law. My kids ahould not have to learn Spanish to communicate with other students. You come here, you learn the language. Quite frankly it pisses me off to see everything from shampoo bottles to bread listing instructions / ingredients in both English & Spanish. You want to be an American so bad---LEARN THE LANGUAGE AND BECOME A TRUE AMERICAN.
I handled a murder case a while back involving the same thing-- a Native American defendant from the interior of Mexico whose primary language was neither English nor Spanish. Translators are out there for these indigenous dialects, but they're not local. The difficulty in getting such a translator into the case can often err, as it did in Montgomery County, on the side of the Defendant, and against the State, with the case being dismissed on speedy trial grounds . . .
Thanks for your comments!I am not a lawyer or a judge,but you dont have to be to know that the language barrier is creating HUGE problems,not just in criminal justice,but in other areas as well.We accomodate other languages the best we can in this country but enough is enough!There are literally hundereds,if not thousands,of languages spoken all over the world and that works as long as people are in their own little corner of the globe-but what about when they get here?
Post a Comment