Judge tells defendants: Learn English...4 Spanish-speaking Hazleton men must pass a test to avoid jail time...

Judge tells defendants: Learn English


4 Spanish-speaking Hazleton men must pass a test to avoid jail time.


By Angela Couloumbis
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 2008

The next time they appear in Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr.'s Luzerne County courtroom, four young Hazleton men who ran afoul of the law had best know their ABCs.

Learning English is a central part of the sentence that Olszewski imposed on the Spanish-speaking men, who earlier this week pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a robbery in May in Hazleton, about 100 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The unusual sentence requires that the four, ranging in age from 17 to 22, return to his court a year from now to take an English test and show that they can speak and write the language. If they fail, the men will have to serve the full two years of the four-to-24-month sentence that Olszewski imposed.

The judge said the ruling was not meant as punishment.

'There's no way young kids can be hurt by knowing how to read and write the English language,' Olszewski was quoted as saying in yesterday's Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, which first reported the story.

'It's a means to helping them get a better education, getting a better job. Period,' the judge added.

Olszewski yesterday said through an assistant that he did not want to comment further on the case since it was pending.

But several legal advocates questioned the judge's decision.

'A big concern is the vagueness of the order to learn English - because what does that really mean?' asked Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. 'Does it mean you have to speak the King's English? Or read Ulysses?'

Another concern is that the condition plays into the misconception that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes, said Mary Catherine Roper, an ACLU staff attorney.

That stereotype was perpetuated in 2006 after Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta stirred a hornet's nest by blaming illegal immigrants for a list of problems, from rising crime to crowded schools. Barletta also pushed for an ordinance to stem the flow of illegal immigrants that some believed were discriminatory. A federal judge struck down the ordinance, and the case is now on appeal.

Olszewski's order this week that the men learn English 'is putting a condition on them that, as far as I'm aware, is not directly related to their likelihood to get into trouble,' Roper said.

The men - identified as Luis Reyes, Ricardo Dominguez, Kelvin Reyes-Rosario and Rafael Guzman-Mateo - are legal residents but they needed translators when they appeared before Olszewski on Tuesday.

They came before the judge to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery. Last May, the four approached two men in Hazleton, asked them for drugs, and ordered them to empty their pockets.

On Tuesday, Olszewski ordered three of the four to be paroled because they have already served four months in prison. The fourth is serving time in jail on an unrelated charge.

He then ordered them to learn English.

Ferris Webby, the attorney representing Guzman-Mateo, yesterday called Olszewski's ruling unusual. But he said he believes the judge's directive to learn English was intended to help the men best meet the conditions of their parole, which includes obtaining their GEDs, and staying away from drugs and alcohol.

'He saw how tough it was for them to communicate on a very serious issue in a courtroom on a very serious charge,' Webby said.

What he's concerned about, said Webby, is 'the ultimate test in the end. Is it going to be a standardized test? What kind of test is it going to be?' At that point, he said, 'I think I have the right, if I think the test is unreasonable, to object.'

Neither Webby nor the attorney for the other three defendants, Joseph J. Yeager, has appealed Olszewski's ruling, although they have 10 days to do so.

In the interim, Webby is doing legal research. He has yet to find a case in Pennsylvania that has placed such a condition on parole for a defendant.

'I think this is brand new territory,' Webby said. 'And I think it's fertile ground.'



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