Kanneh update: The indictment

Michelle obtained the 6-page indictment — images of it are over at mm.com. She also links to the latest on the story from Fox. It’s a head-spinner.

Court records, meanwhile, show that an interpreter was “sworn” by a Maryland court on the same day Savage dismissed the case, FOXNews.com has learned. Loretta Knight, a clerk with the court system in Montgomery County, Md., claimed she had been unable to find an interpreter to stay on the case, even after an exhaustive search that included the Liberian Embassy and courts in 47 states. But a look at the court docket for July 17, the day the case was dismissed, shows the entry “Interpreter sworn.” Several items below in the docket, Judge Savage “grants defendant’s oral motion to dismiss case based on a speedy trial violation.”

A review by FOX News of the audio from that hearing shows, however, that an interpreter was present throughout the entire court proceeding, during which time Kanneh’s lawyer, Theresa Chernosky, argued that her client had not been able to get a good job because of unresolved rape charges. Chernosky is heard also telling Savage that her client works at a gas station, and has not signed up for school because of the uncertainty about his future.

The translator can be heard throughout the entire hearing.

This backs up what State’s Attorney John McCarthy said earlier today–that a translator was available and ready for the trial. What McCarthy didn’t say was that the judge evidently dismissed the case due to lack of an interpreter when one was right there in the courtroom translating the proceedings.

And then there’s this, also from the Fox story:

Records from a case-worker report dated Oct. 31, 2006, show that the case worker visited Kanneh’s residence to check on him and instead found another sex offender, Sehkou Massaquoi, at the home along with two male children who shared the last name of the defendant.

Blowback