Lawsuit says aggravated municipal judge shouted at defendant who sought sign-language interpreter
A New Jersey man who says he was “ignored, humiliated and treated with discrimination and deliberate indifference” when he sought a sign-language interpreter in a traffic ticket case has filed a federal civil rights suit against Newark and its municipal court system.
After two court hearings without an interpreter, Chenedu Ibrahim Ali, who is deaf, says he did get eventually the tickets dismissed. However, he had to wait for hours because of the lack of an interpreter the first time around, New Jersey Advance Media reports.
And when he did get in front of the court, the suit alleges, “the judge, becoming aggravated with the plaintiff, yelled at him to decide whether he was guilty or not and sign the paper and screamed at him loudly stating, upon information and belief: ‘That’s a lie! You can hear me!’”
City and court representatives either did not immediately respond to an Advance request for comment or declined to comment.
In a written statement, Ali’s counsel, Eisenberg & Baum, said a lack of required services for the deaf is a “sad reality” in many courthouses throughout the U.S.
