Karla Giraldo, speaker of Spanglish.Photo: nypost.com

One of the big questions for the Monserrate defense team going into the trial was how they would rebut testimony from a nurse, Dawn Korte, who says that Karla Giraldo told her that, far from an accident, Monserrate had intentionally slashed her face with a broken glass during a fight, conforming with everything we know about probability and the physical laws of the universe. We got a glimpse into their strategy when defense attorney Joseph Tacopina, in his opening statement, suggested that something may have been lost in translation when Giraldo (who was born in Ecuador and speaks "Spanglish") told Korte her story. But today in court, Korte claimed that she understood Giraldo perfectly well, since her father is from Panama, her mother is from Puerto Rico, she grew up speaking Spanish at home, and studied for a time in Spain. It was worth a shot, though.

Nurse: Monserrate attack not lost in translation [NYP]