People v. Gutierrez

I concur in the well-reasoned views expressed by Justice Wiener and would add these further words in response to the concerns expressed by the dissent.

A simple reading of the colloquy between court and counsel quoted by the dissent makes reversal inevitable. The law is: “[W]here the gist of the case under consideration involves the uttering in a foreign language of certain words having a particular meaning in that language it may be necessary to have the actual words used in that language repeated in court by the witness who heard them, and in the same language in which they were spoken, and…