Deisy Garcia, Spanish Speaking Mom, And Daughters Stabbed To Death After Her NYPD Complaint Wasn't Translated

The tragic murder of a Spanish-speaking Queens woman and her two daughters is making headlines after the case has become the posterchild of a hole in the New York Police Department, where not all complaints are translated and reviewed by authorities. And while one would like to believe the case of Deisy Garcia is an isolate case, there is an organization claiming the NYPD's translation problem is a common issue in the immigrant population.

Authorities have disclosed that Garcia and her two daughters -- two-year-old Daniela and one-year-old Yoselin -- were stabbed in their Queens apartment on Jan. 18, 2014. The murder was allegedly committed by the girls' father and Garcia's ex-husband, Miguel Mejia-Ramos. The Queens district attorney's office states that Mejia-Ramos -- who has been charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon -- told authorities that he stabbed his wife multiple times and then entered his daughters' room. Upon entering their bedroom, the girls' father gave each girl a hug and kiss, and then stabbed them while asking for forgiveness.

Garcia's uncle and 12-year-old cousin discovered the three bodies the day after the murder. Mejia-Ramos reportedly was attempting to flee the country to Mexico, but was arrested in Schulenburg, Texas on Jan. 21. After being brought back to New york, Mejia-Ramos told authorities he had been drinking the night of the murders and had gone through his wife's phone and Facebook account, finding pictures of her with another man. According to the Queens district attorney's office, Meija-Ramos was indicted on Feb. 14, will be arraigned in March, and he faces life in prison without parole if he is convicted on the murder charge.

While the murder of Garcia took place this year, the story of the immigrant woman's domestic abuse begins last year in May, when she filed a police report claiming that she feared that her husband would kill her and her daughters. Garcia spoke to the NYPD in Spanish and filed her report in Spanish as well. But the NYPD has since revealed that Garcia's initial report was never translated to English and as such, there was no further review of her complaint. Suffice to say, Garcia's family feels that if the police had investigated, she and her daughters would still be alive.

"If they would have given it more importance, would have translated it to English, then maybe they (police) would have figured out what to do, they would have investigated him, been more on top of the case, what was happening with them," said Luzmina Alvarado, Garcia's mother, reports CNN. "If the police had done something, this tragedy could have been avoided -- my daughter would be alive."

The May report was not the only one that went undetected in the NYPD, as Garcia filed another report in Spanish after an incident in November of 2013. Similar to what happened in May, Garcia filed a domestic incident report in November after cops responded to a call from the mother. According to her aunt, Sara Alvarado, she cried and told authorities that her husband threatened to kill her. In her report, she detailed her husband's abuse and threats. The day after cops were at her place, Garcia went to the precint to follow-up her complaints. Both reports were found amongst Deisy Garcia's belongings after she died; neither report led to an arrest.

"I knew about the police report, and I knew about the police showing up at the house previously on one of the times where Deisy had called the police because she had been the victim of domestic violence," says Roger Asmar, an attorney hired by Garcia's family, reports CNN. "But we did not know that every time Deisy filled out a report -- every time she went to the precinct or the cops came to the house -- no one actually translated the text into English, so, apparently no one looked into it. No one translated it and they just put it away or placed it into the system ... three complaints were filed by Deisy, and none of the times she filed a complaint did police actually arrest Mr. Mejia, her ex-husband."

Incidentally, the Violence Intervention Program has filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of six Latinas alleging that limited-English speakers are denied "access to NYPD services" when there are no interpreters. "Not only does the NYPD fail to provide language assistance, it also degrades, ridicules and otherwise mistreats limited English proficient individuals who request interpreter services, actively demeaning them for their lack of English proficiency," states the lawsuit, which is currently pending.

The New York City Law Department, which handles the legal issues for the city, has defended the NYPD with reference to the lawsuit. "The NYPD has more foreign-language-speaking officers than any police department in the country, including thousands of Spanish-speaking officers," said Nicholas Paolucci, spokesman for the New York City Law Department. "Also, the NYPD has a corps of 19,000 members of the service who can provide interpretation services in over 70 languages."

As for Garcia's case, the NYPD has supposedly taken steps to ensure translations of filed reports are reviewed. NYPD Detective Cherly Crispin said in a statement: "A memo will be transmitted to all commands informing domestic violence officers to immediately locate a member of the command who possesses the necessary language skills to translate a victim's written statement to English."