State Supreme Court reverses judge on probation revocation

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

The Nevada Supreme Court determined a District Court judge was wrong in revoking probation for a Las Vegas man who insisted a court document be translated into Spanish.

The high court last week reversed District Judge Joseph Bonaventure's ruling revoking probation for Hector Calderon Ramirez, who was convicted on a charge of evading a police officer in October 2002.

According to court documents, a Spanish-speaking probation officer explained the terms of the probation agreement to Ramirez in Spanish, but Ramirez asked that the document be re-written in Spanish.

Ramirez also refused to submit to DNA testing, as ordered by the court.

"What he was doing was absolutely right," Ramirez's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Howard Brooks, said. "He was following the precise order of the law."

Ramirez was convicted of evading a police officer in October 2002 and was sentenced to 19 to 48 months in prison. Bonaventure suspended the sentence and placed him on two years' probation.

But at a hearing two months later, Bonaventure determined that Ramirez was noncompliant by not signing the document or taking the DNA test and revoked the probation.

In a ruling last week the Nevada Supreme Court determined Bonaventure erred in his ruling.

"Ramirez did not violate a condition of his probation by merely requesting a Spanish language version of the probation agreement," the justices wrote.

They determined Ramirez's request was "neither unreasonable nor an indication that he would not comply with the conditions of his probation."

Ramirez has already served the majority of his sentence at the Clark County Detention Center, Brooks said. He said the case raises concerns about how the criminal justice system handles non-English speaking defendants.

"There's a general lack of sensitivity in the system for people who speak Spanish or a foreign language," Brooks said.

During the revocation hearing, the probation officer said he read the agreement to Ramirez in Spanish at the North Las Vegas jail because Ramirez could not read English.

The officer said Ramirez believed portions of the probation agreement were inaccurate and requested the document be translated into Spanish. The officer said he didn't have a translated version of the document with him, he said.

The officer said Ramirez then refused to sign the document and also refused to take a DNA test, as ordered by the court.

"He said he's not going to do anything," the officer told Bonaventure, according to court transcripts.

During the revocation hearing, Ramirez told Bonaventure he wanted the document translated so he could be sure the terms of his probation were correct.

"I wanted to see in Spanish to see what I was signing," he said, according to transcripts. "I don't know English, I did six grade."

But Bonaventure said the officer had already explained the agreement to Ramirez in Spanish. The probation officer told Bonaventure that Ramirez could understand a little English but had difficulty reading it.