I had a deaf defendant in front of me this week and the court assigned an ASL interpreter to assist in the matter. The interpreter asked if he might move a chair such that he would sit with his back to me and his face to the defendant, defense attorney and prosecutor. I said that would be fine but found it mildly distracting to be looking at the back of his head. When the matter was concluded, I told the interpreter that I learned a little sign when my son studied it in college and was therefor able to grasp some of what he was signing. I was puzzled however by a sign which he used several times during the hearing where he would lift his right elbow such that his upper arm was parellel to the floor and put his right hand over his right ear and then move his sightly-cupped fingers up and down rapidly several times behind his ear. I asked what it meant. "Nothing," he replied, "I had an itch."
