Interpreters at Mavrick Fisher’s preliminary hearing

[Transcript] I posted a video of the preliminary hearing of Mavrick Fisher’s murder case on Saturday. The video showed that there were two CDIs at the beginning on the floor, but then two hearing interpreters took over, switching with each other until the end of the hearing.

I got a question about this and I’ll explain what happened.

There were six interpreters in total, 3 CDIs and 3 hearing interpreters. One team of CDI/HI was assigned to the table for Mavrick Fisher to communicate with his attorney. There were two teams of CDI/HI for the floor proceedings.

After about an hour into the hearing, Mavrick's attorney asked for the HI to come up on the floor instead of using a CDI reading from a HI. The reason was that Mavrick was watching the HI all the way with his head turned. After a bit of a discussion with the judge, it was decided that the HI would move to the floor while the CDI sat on the side. That continued for more than half of the hearing.

At the end of the hearing, the judge said CDIs would not be needed because Mavrick did not use them, but he said Mavrick had the right to request them.

Additional note: the judge also decided that the barrier would be removed because he was concerned that the jury would somehow be distracted by it or that it would interfere on Mavrick's "right to a fair trial.”

There were two communication advocates from Deaf Counseling Advocacy and Referral Agency (DCARA) at the preliminary hearing last week and they have worked with the Lake County Superior Court on interpreting arrangements.

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