County Agrees to Pay Costs of Interpreter to Sign for Deaf Juror

A 57-year-old Northridge man became the first hearing-impaired juror for whom Los Angeles County has agreed to provide a sign-language interpreter Monday when he reported for jury duty at Van Nuys Superior Court.

“At least deaf people now have the option of serving on a jury just like everybody else,” said Nathan Shapiro, an engineer who has been partially deaf since birth.

“Of course, some will try to get out of it just like anybody else,” he added. “But at least they now have the right to serve.”

The county’s new sign-language interpreter service for jurors who are deaf or hearing-impaired is available in Municipal and Superior courts in Torrance, downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Pasadena as well as Van Nuys, said Ed Johnson, director of interpreter services for the county’s courts.

The new service will cost the county $30,000 a year for a full-time coordinator plus fees of $171 a day for interpreters.

Johnson said the service is the result of a settlement reached last October in a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in 1981 by the Greater Los Angeles Council for the Deaf.

“We hope this will encourage other deaf and hearing-impaired people to become jurors,” Johnson said.

The lawsuit was filed after Shapiro was forced to hire a private interpreter when he served as a juror in San Fernando Superior Court in 1980. Shapiro sent his $4,000 bill for the interpreter’s services to the county, which refused to pay it, Johnson said.

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

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

She said the council paid Shapiro’s interpreter service bill in 1980.

“It’s been long overdue,” said Karen Bowman, 29, of Northridge, who is coordinator of the county’s sign-language service. “There are many, many people who could serve as well as hearing people.”

Bowman, 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 at the county’s expense if Shapiro becomes a member of a jury. 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.