By Jamie Cho, Ph.D.
Contributing Writer
On July 18, King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung denied a motion for reconsideration filed by pro bono counsel Joyce Shui for a 66-year-old Chinese American immigrant, Zhen Jin.
In the ruling, Judge Chung responded to Shui’s concerns about faulty interpretation services, stating, “As this Court has stated repeatedly, the interpreters are certified by the Administrative Office of the Courts for all court proceedings.”
Over the past three years and in over 14 court appearances, across different courts and multiple judges, the latest ruling by Judge Chung is not the first to deny equitable interpretation services to Jin.
Jin, a U.S. citizen, works part-time as a public school bus driver and cares for her uncle, an 89-year-old Palestinian man who is deaf and legally blind. Jin and her uncle purchased their condominium in Kenmore four years ago, next door to Agnes Miggins—then the president of the homeowners association—and Burton Hill, a Seattle Police Department officer at the time.
Shortly after Jin and her uncle began requesting enforcement of homeowners association rules in early 2022—such as leashing dogs and keeping driveways clear—Miggins and Hill allegedly began harassing them with racial slurs, insults, profanity, and threats, including warnings of jail and eviction.
After the Seattle nonprofit Chinese Information & Service Center (CISC) filed a complaint, Hill was terminated from his job. On Sept.ember 23, 2024—the day a recording of the racist comments was made public—Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and then-Chief of Police Adrian Diaz both swiftly condemned the off-duty misconduct.
Due to ongoing racial hostility and verbal harassment, Shui and pro bono co-counsel Marie Aglion filed for, and secured, a protection order against Miggins in September 2024. The court granted a 10-year order, which Shui and Aglion described as “an unusually long period of protection, appropriately reflective of the extreme, chronic, and consequence-resistant nature of the harassment.” The order includes standard provisions, such as a ban on recording, as well as specific requirements.: Miggins must leash her dog, step down from the HOA board, and stop parking in a designated no-parking zone.
Advised by the court to document further harassment or violations, Jin has used video recordings as a way to protect herself and to document the violations of the protection order. The court had also advised her to call the police to report violations. However, several advocates raised concerns about police bias in their public comments to the Kenmore City Council in June 2025.
When Jin has called the police to report violations of the protection order, as suggested by the court, police have repeatedly refused to provide interpretation services. Mia Niu, CISC Anti-Bias Anti-Hate advocate, stated during Kenmore City Council public comment that Jin has waited over three hours for police to respond, and in one instance, a police officer who responded said, “Maybe Jin should speak better English.”
“This response was not only inappropriate. It was harmful, deeply. It sent a message that language proficiency, not justice or safety, is the threshold for being protected,” said Niu.
The management company, Ewing & Clark, responsible for overseeing the condominium complex where Jin and Miggins lived until ending its role in September 2024, repeatedly denied Jin access to interpretation services, both during in-person meetings and through translated email communications. Property manager Tim Stratton, who does not speak or read Mandarin, wrote, “[P]lease have [Jin reach out to me directly, without interpretation] as there has never been any language barrier between us.”
By May 2025, Jin’s advocates were considering a motion for contempt against Miggins, who, despite the 10-year protection order, continued parking in the no-parking zone for three months, and kept her dog unleashed, and did not immediately remove herself from the HOA board—actions advocates say violate the order.
Shui estimates she has worked 2,000 hours on this case, and there are many other pro bono attorneys, paralegals, and volunteers across the nation who have contributed thousands more hours of time.
Shui says, “This extraordinary effort shows how difficult it is for a BIPOC immigrant woman with limited English to defend herself against racial discrimination by two white native English speakers with powerful positions. As volunteers up against institutional bias, we cannot do Ms. Jin full justice. There isn’t enough time in the day. The best we could do was to recommend she record the violations so we could preserve the option and so she could defend against lies.”
In May 2025, Miggins brought a protection order petition against Jin to stop Jin from video recording and have Jin deemed by the court to be a harasser.
“The toll of racism is massive,” explains Michael Itti, the executive director of CISC. “In addition to the suffering of the direct victim, there can be hundreds, at a minimum, of individuals supporting the victim behind the scenes, many of whom are BIPOC themselves. They use vacation time. They lose time with family. They pay out of pocket for court and parking expenses. The second-level racism suffered by all these survivors, who include the victim herself and all her supporters, as they experience, observe, and re-play the direct racism, is real.”
At the hearings, Miggins blamed Hill’s job loss on Jin and expressed fear about being recorded. In support of her claims, Miggins presented multiple recordings she had made of Jin, obtained despite an active protection order, including footage from five cameras she had pointed at Jin’s home, Hill, neighbors, local businesses, and bystanders. Despite this, the court, presided over by Judge Chung, granted Miggins’ petition.
Shui petitioned the court to reconsider its decision, arguing that no meaningful interpretation was provided during the June 6 hearing, despite the presence of a certified interpreter. She had also requested that the court record the Mandarin interpretation to document its accuracy and support due process claims. An audio recording, she argued, would have allowed Jin to verify the absence of interpretation on that channel.
In his written ruling, Judge Chung reiterated what he had said during the hearings—- Jin’s due process rights were intact because court interpreters are certified.
“When a judge accepts non-existent interpretation as sufficient just because the interpreter is certified and despite evidence to the contrary, that’s biased,” said Shui. “Certification alone isn’t enough. It can’t excuse errors like audio failures, language mismatches, or interpreters because they can’t keep up or for any other reason. This is not the legal standard of a society committed to justice.”
According to Niu, who is multilingual, interpretation inaccuracies were detected in several previous court hearings. For example, at a Dec.ember 18, 2023 hearing, Miggins’ statement that “I am not engaged to [Hill] anymore” was translated as “I no longer have any involvement with [Hill].”
In one 911 call placed by Jin on Dec.ember 14, 2023, the operator asked in English whether Jin had a protection order against Miggins, which Jin did. If the interpretation had been correct, Jin could have answered concisely and perhaps the call would have been routed differently or more quickly. However, the interpreter asked Jin whether there were any circumstances that might allow Jin to file for a protection order against Miggins. The result was a lengthy recitation of facts, followed by the operator cutting Jin short and a delayed police response.
At multiple hearings, Miggins has also attempted to deny Jin interpretation services. She was reminded multiple times by judges to pause for interpretation and in hearings, including the first court hearing in February 2023, Miggins argued, “I’m not sure why there’s an interpreter here. Because [Jin] knows very well how to speak English.”
No interpreter was available for the court hearing on June 3, 2025, preventing Jin and her community advocates from being heard that day. As a result, the resolution was delayed, and both Jin and her supporters had to take two days off from work.
At a previous court appearance on Sept.ember 24, 2024, the interpreter had to leave, forcing Jin to choose between proceeding without interpretation or returning another day—at the cost of lost wages.
In most of the court hearings, Shui noted, ”The time allocated for the case has not accounted for the additional time required for interpretation. In the most recent hearing, where the stakes were the highest, the interpretation was the worst of all. It was effectively nonexistent.” Jin’s declaration explained to the court, “[I] received only stuttered syllables, filler sounds, and fragmented words—none of which conveyed the hearing’s content.”
Despite Jin’s inability to participate in the hearing due to lack of interpretation, Judge Chung issued a protection order against Jin. “Ms. Jin was forced to seek safe housing to avoid further false allegations from Miggins, who has a documented history of shouting racist slurs, making derogatory insults and threats toward Ms. Jin, and deflecting her own misconduct by falsely accusing Ms. Jin,” said Niu.
Following the adverse court ruling, Jin’s advocates turned to the Kenmore City Council. When informed that public comments would be given in Mandarin, the Council arranged for interpretation and, on June 9, extended the speaking time from three to six minutes to accommodate it. At the June 16 meeting, when Ms. Jin’s uncle requested to speak in Arabic about the impact of ongoing harassment and the judge’s ruling, the Council—after advocates explained that interpretation and clarification questions reduce available time—unanimously granted him seven minutes to speak.
Shui, who also represents another victim who fled her home in the same complex in 2023 because of Miggins, said, “The series of court cases concerns me deeply about how language proficiency and social positioning may influence institutional responses so that aggressors have access to the courts to inflict abuse, but survivors cannot even live in their homes.”
Ultimately, Jin and her team of advocates hope that by raising awareness of linguistic biases within systems that people like Jin will be better served. In recounting the latest ruling, Jin said, “It was disorienting not to know what was happening during the hearing and to learn of the outcome was devastating. It’s been a lot of work to be living out of a suitcase while I figure out what to do with my house and my livelihood. I hope I can help prevent others from going through what I’ve experienced.” Niu believes, “Ms. Jin’s bravery and commitment to standing up for herself and others will support systemic change to honor linguistic diversity. Ms. Jin’s continued fight for justice, despite real challenges like finding permanent housing, is her gift to the world.”
Note:
The writer serves as a community advocate on racial equity issues, including in some of the hearings discussed in this article. This prior involvement may inform the perspectives presented. The article has been reviewed by editorial staff to ensure it meets journalistic standards of fairness and accuracy.