It wasn't your garden-variety pot case for court interpreter Lisa McNaughton.
Two marijuana growers were charged with killing a man in the hills above Healdsburg, and a former employee was testifying against them.
None of them spoke English.
At a preliminary hearing, each was assigned his own interpreter. McNaughton translated for the witness while two other interpreters whispered to the defendants across the courtroom.
About every 15 minutes, they stopped and like a choreographed dance, switched positions with fresh interpreters in the audience.
The situation called for team interpreting to avoid fatigue and costly errors.
"It's very intense work," said McNaughton, a former high school teacher who's been a court interpreter for a decade. "Our word is on the record. There is really no room for mistakes."
It was an unusual case for Sonoma County Superior Court's interpreters, who usually are scattered across the Hall of Justice serving a growing non-English-speaking population.
The law requires the court to supply translation services to adult defendants, minors and their parents.
The six full- and six part-time interpreters aim to do just that.
All specialize in Spanish translation, and the court hires people proficient in other languages if necessary, such as Mandarin, Eritrean and Cambodian. Interpreters fluent in exotic languages are summoned from across the Bay Area.
Each day, the interpreters scan the court calendar for people likely to need services or roam the halls offering their help. Interpreters hustle from one courtroom to the next, appearing in traffic, criminal and juvenile courts. Legal proceedings grind to a halt if they are not there.
The Healdsburg homicide hearing was rare because six interpreters were standing by.
"We're sometimes pulled around," McNaughton said. "Judges are not happy when they don't have their interpreters."
To ensure enough translation, the court has hired more interpreters and converted contractors to employees.
The move doubled the annual interpreter budget over the past decade from $699,000 in 2001 to an expected $1.4 million this fiscal year -- the 14th highest among the state's 58 counties. Statewide, interpreters are expected to cost about $90 million this year.
Court officials attribute the increase to the shift from the contractor-based system and as new employees become eligible for health and retirement benefits.
Incremental raises have increased interpreter pay to $35 an hour.
Whether demand has increased locally is unclear. Statewide, the California Judicial Council reported a 14 percent increase in services from 2004 to 2008 but it did not provide data for Sonoma County alone.
Ra?l Rom? Riefkohl, the head of the court interpreters in Sonoma County, said while his office doesn't keep local statistics, he hasn't noticed a significant increase in the past three years.
"We have spikes, periods when demand goes up during trials," Riefkohl said. "But I haven't seen a dramatic increase."
Brandon Scovill, a union representative for the interpreters, said a concern is the court system's efforts to curtail interpreter duties for budget reasons.
Administrators don't want interpreters to assist parents outside the juvenile courtroom but interpreters maintain it's needed. The dispute has been ongoing for more than a year.
"It's been frustrating," said Scovill of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. "The court is sticking to its guns. We agree with the Department of Justice that people in this country have the same right to understand the judicial process as everyone else."
Most predict there soon will be a shortage of qualified interpreters, especially for certain languages.
The county court system runs a regular job posting on its website, and interpreter schools run ads on Bay Area radio stations.
There's no educational requirement to become certified, but interpreters must pass a rigorous test and many have advanced degrees.
"We don't have enough people choosing to become interpreters," Riefkohl said. "I expect in the next five years, we will have a crisis in California."
You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.
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