Need for translation services for immigrant questioned

Westmoreland County taxpayers paid more than $1,700 for an interpreter to translate court proceedings for an illegal Mexican immigrant convicted earlier this month in an attempted carjacking.

Now court officials are wondering whether the expense was needed.

The county this year has paid more than $5,500 for translation services in Common Pleas Court and district judges’ offices, records show. That included five instances in which sign language interpreters were needed in domestic cases involving a deaf participant. One Italian translator was needed in a civil guardianship case, and a Spanish translator was paid $130 to assist with a two-hour guilty plea.