Deaf Jurors Win 8-Year Battle for Interpreters

Los Angeles County broke a sound barrier Monday that will enable deaf and hearing-impaired citizens to serve on juries in municipal and superior courts.

“At least deaf people now have the option of serving on a jury just like everybody else,” said Nathan Shapiro, 57, a prospective Van Nuys Superior Court juror who on Monday became the first person with hearing problems to be assigned a sign-language interpreter at county expense.

Shapiro and the Greater Los Angeles Council for the Deaf began fighting for interpreters for jurors nearly a decade ago.

Previously, people with hearing problems were excused from jury duty. With the addition of the new interpreter program, hearing problems will no longer be reason enough not to serve, said Ed Johnson, director of interpreter services for the county’s courts.

“We hope this will encourage other deaf and hearing-impaired people to become jurors,” Johnson said. “We now have seven others in our jury pool waiting to be assigned to a court.”

The new service will cost the county $30,000 for a full-time coordinator plus $171 a day for each interpreter.

Interpreters will be available in municipal and superior courts in Van Nuys, Torrance, downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Pasadena, Johnson said.

The service is the result of a settlement reached last October in a federal class action lawsuit filed in 1981.

The Council for the Deaf filed the suit after Shapiro, a Northridge engineer who has had hearing difficulties since birth, hired an interpreter in 1980 to help him serve as a juror in San Fernando Superior Court.

Shapiro billed the county about $4,000 for the interpreter’s fee. But the county refused to pay.

Refused to Pay

When Shapiro was summoned for jury duty in 1987, county officials again refused to pay for an interpreter, which led the Council for the Deaf to press even harder for settlement of the lawsuit, said Marcella Meyer, council executive director.

“It’s about time that deaf people had the right to serve as jurors if they want to,” Meyer said. “This is one step forward.”

“It’s been long overdue,” said Karen Bowman, 29, of Northridge, who was hired earlier this year to coordinate the sign language service. “There are many, many people who could serve as well as hearing people.”

Bowman, who has been deaf since birth, read the standard jury orientation for Shapiro in sign language Monday.

Benita Maupin, an interpreter with the county courts, will provide sign-language interpretation if Shapiro is selected as a juror.

Maupin, who can hear, said she learned sign language before she learned to speak.

“Both my parents were deaf,” Maupin said. “So you could say English is my second language. Sign language is my first.”

Maupin said the courts traditionally have provided interpreters for deaf or hearing-impaired witnesses and defendants, but not for jurors.

When other deaf or hearing- impaired people learn of the new service, Maupin said, she believes many will want to serve on a jury.

He Isn’t Called

As for Shapiro, he failed to be called for a jury panel on his first day of duty but said he hopes to serve on a case. He said it doesn’t matter whether the trial is civil or criminal.

“It’s a very important process,” Shapiro said of the American jury system. “That’s why I’ve put so much into it.”

He said he hopes many other hearing-impaired jurors will follow him.

“I hope I’m not the last one called,” he said.