New Jersey AG accuses Millville of discriminating against Latino people in municipal court

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday that it had filed a civil-rights complaint against the City of Millville in Cumberland County, alleging discrimination last year by the local municipal court against Latino people when scheduling court appearances.

Although virtual appearances were available with translation services, the municipal court required in-person appearances by people needing Spanish-English translation or had names that appeared to make them Spanish-speaking, according to the complaint filed by the Attorney General’s Division on Civil Rights.

The alleged practice emerged as a public controversy in December when Jason Witcher, who was the municipal court judge in Millville, asked defendants in court whether they had been offered the option of virtual court appearances, and many said no. Witcher then stated for the record that the apparent forcing of people to attend in-person was the “most discriminatory thing” he had ever encountered in his career.

A months-long investigation by the Division on Civil Rights “corroborated Judge Witcher’s allegation that the Millville Municipal Court required litigants who were or were perceived to be Spanish-speaking to appear in person and thereby denied these litigants equal access to virtual court proceedings,” the complaint states.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Brock D. Russell, city attorney for Millville, said the operation of the municipal court is determined by rules established by the state’s judiciary.

“While the city has the power to appoint the judge and other officers of its municipal court, under the state constitution the state judiciary has sole power to oversee the operations of the court,” Russell said.

Witcher resigned from his judgeship in Millville, along with three other courts, and has filed a lawsuit against the state’s Administrative Office of the Court, claiming he was the victim of retaliation for raising the discrimination allegation.

“We’re pleased that the attorney general is investigating this [issue],” said Drake Bearden, a lawyer representing Witcher.

In February, the Administrative Office of the Court released its own 45-page investigative report on the matter.

What Witcher alleged was “deeply concerning and warrant[ed] a thorough, careful review,” the administrative arm of the state judiciary said.

That investigation found “no direct evidence that Millville Municipal Court officials were denying individual defendants the opportunity to appear for court virtually because they had a Hispanic/Latino-sounding surname or a need for interpreting.”

The court report did, however, offer suggestions for improving the availability and awareness of translation services.

In its complaint filed Tuesday, the Division on Civil Rights said it reviewed the findings of the Administrative Office of the Court.

But the Division on Civil Rights investigation — which analyzed a much larger dataset of court appearances, and included expert data analysis, numerous interviews, and review of thousands of emails — tells a different story, according to the complaint.

Even when taking into account other factors, such as a state Supreme Court order requiring in-person appearances for more serious criminal charges, “defendants with Hispanic surnames were almost twice as likely as defendants with non-Hispanic surnames to be scheduled for an in-person court appearance,” according to the complaint.

Before the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, people needing a Spanish-language interpreter were scheduled to appear on one of two Mondays each month because that was when the interpreter was available.

After the pandemic hit, court hearings became virtual. About July 2021, a video language-translation service became available for virtual hearings.

But despite having that service available, “Millville continued its practice of scheduling litigants who were or were perceived to be Spanish-speaking on the two in-person Mondays a month that the court interpreter was available,” the complaint states.

It also appeared that “scheduling may not have been based only on litigants’ actual need for interpreting services, but also may have been based on surname or other indicators of national origin,” according to the complaint.

The complaint, which covers the period from June to December 2022, doesn’t allege a motive for why in-person appearances were favored.

“New Jersey’s laws forbid discrimination on the basis of national origin. That anyone in the [c]ity of Millville had to face discrimination from any public entity is disappointing, disheartening, and unacceptable,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

“Such practices only serve to erode the public’s trust. New Jersey is committed to eliminating discrimination, no matter where it occurs,” Platkin said.