FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Bilingual (Spanish-English) interpreters for courts of justice nationwide will have the opportunity to learn forensic investigation vocabulary and techniques to apply in their work by attending a three-day workshop Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Frankfort. The Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts will sponsor the comprehensive workshop titled Forensic Science in the Courtroom, Advanced Criminal Forensics for Spanish Interpreters. Registration is due by Monday, Jan. 26.
The workshop is designed for interpreters who investigate possible criminal acts and/or prepare expert and criminological reports. Participants who complete the workshop will earn 22.5 continuing education units from the AOC Division of Court Interpreting Services. The cost to attend is $250, which is non-refundable.
The workshop will explore six key disciplines within the forensic science field:
- Criminology – Techniques and biological resources geared toward clarifying criminal cases through the study of objective clues left during a criminal act.
- Thanatology – The study of cadavers and their evolutionary phenomena, including the techniques employed in this area of study.
- Traumatology and Forensic Pathology – The medical-legal study of injuries and illnesses and of their legal implications.
- Forensic Sexology – The study of the legal conflict that exists with respect to sexuality and its implications in criminal acts.
- Forensic Psychiatry – The study of mental illness and the problems it causes as it relates to the law.
- Forensic Toxicology – The study of poisoning as a cause of death and of poison as a criminal weapon.
Among the specific topics that will be covered during the workshop are dactylographic evidence including tire tracks and fingerprints; victims, including causes of death and bodies at crime scenes; biological and chemical evidence used for human identification and test analysis, such as dental identification and toxicology; lethal agents (weapons); and suspects and defendants, including psychological profiling, lie detection and mental illness. The workshop will include a practical application of a case study.
The workshop will take place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day. Lunch will be provided at no cost to participants.
Workshop presenters will be Aristófanes Cedeño and Joshua C. Elliott.
To obtain a registration form for the workshop, interpreters should visit the AOC Web site at www.courts.ky.gov, click on Court Programs on the left menu and select Court Interpreting Services. The form is at the top of the page. For more information, interpreters may contact Jean-Joseph Saulnerond at 800-928-2350.
Presenters
Aristófanes Cedeño, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Ky., where he teaches Spanish language and literature and legal Spanish. He developed a graduate course at U of L that focuses on legal Spanish, with an emphasis on immigration, forensics and the relationship between law and literature. He spent 2006-2007 at the University of Pittsburgh as an American Council on Education Fellow. The ACE Fellows Program is the nation’s premier higher education leadership development program in preparing senior leaders to serve American colleges and universities.
He serves as executive director of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program. The Hispanic newspaper, Hoy en las Americas, named him as one of the Most Influential Hispanics in Louisville.
He also holds a law degree from the University of Panama where he taught political science before moving to the United States from his home country of Panama. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Spanish literature from Michigan State University. He has published a book on Panamanian popular culture. He has also edited and published a book and several papers on his research interests, which include natural law, literature of the 19th century and the Romantic Movement. For more information, visit www.louisville.edu and type Dr. Aristófanes Cedeño into the search engine.
Joshua C. Elliott works for the Administrative Office of the Courts as a certified Spanish staff interpreter for Jefferson County. He earned his certification to interpret in judicial proceedings from the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification in 2007. He graduated with honors from Murray State University with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 2001 after having studied abroad in Costa Rica, Mexico and Spain. He then joined the U.S. Border Patrol, graduating first in his class from the 500th session of the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Charleston, S.C., in 2002. After working for nearly a year as a federal agent on the Southern California/Mexico border, he moved to Louisville where he spent nearly five years working directly with the U.S. Hispanic population in various professional capacities at Humana Inc. He is pursuing a master’s degree in Spanish at U of L. He is originally from Murray, Ky.