The tenant landed in court back in March for failing to pay $7,000 in back rent to her landlord. When she finally forked over the payment, she also signed a new agreement stating that she wouldn't be late on rent again.

She was late in June, landlord Barrington Bowen claims—and now she owes him an additional $1,150 in rent, plus fees. The landlord wasn't happy to be involved in a second run-around. "I'm tired of chasing after this woman," he told the court. "I've had it, and I want my property back."

The tenant's lawyer, who was communicating with the tenant in Spanish, protested that the woman didn't understand what she was agreeing to, since the court failed to supply an interpreter during the proceedings.

Judge Joan Zeldon—she of cell-phone borrowing fame—wasn't buying the language barrier excuse.

"I simply don't believe that," Zeldon said, adding that the court "bends over backward" to provide interpreters during hearings. A Spanish interpreter is on-hand at the court each morning, and other language-speakers are summoned on request—an Urdu interpreter, in fact, was on the way.

Zeldon went back to the record to settle the bilingual dispute. According to court documents, Zeldon pointed out, the March agreement had been "read by an interpreter in open court." Zeldon pointed to the line in the document and shook her head. The tenant, at least, understood the body language.

Reporting by Ruth Samuelson

Joseph has been trying to secure the rent from Karina Okoro, who occupies a one-bedroom unit in Joseph's 23-unit Petworth apartment building, since November of last year. At one point, marshals arrived at the complex ready to evict Okoro, who asked for an hour to get Joseph his money. When he came to collect, she was gone.

At her court date in front of Judge Joan Zeldon this morning, Okoro again proved a no-show. During the course of the proceedings, it was suggested that Okoro may be in a more relaxed state than her anxious landlord—she was spending some time in Florida.

Zeldon, unable to make long-distance phone calls from the court's land line, asked to borrow Joseph's cell phone in order to give Okoro a little tinkle. Later, Zeldon realized that despite Okoro's exotic locale, the number was kosher to call from court.

But Okoro failed to make a long-distance appearance as well. "Tell her this is Judge Zeldon calling from the bench," Zeldon said to whoever was screening Okoro's calls. She had a message regarding the landlord. "It looks like she's just stonewalling him, and I just really can't permit that to happen."

Reporting by Ruth Samuelson