Last December, Bill Cosby was formally charged in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with three counts of aggravated indecent assault of former Temple University employee Andrea Constand.
The trial looming, Cosby’s attorneys argued that the 79-year-old’s declining health was so poor that a fair trial would not be possible: How can a 79-year-old blind man defend himself against a claim that he sexually assaulted someone he supposedly met once, half a century ago? The answer is simple: He cannot, and the Commonwealth knows he cannot … Without his eyesight, Mr. Cosby cannot even determine whether has has ever even seen some of his accusers, let alone develop defenses and gather exculpatory evidence. Moreover, Mr. Cosby’s memory has substantially declined in the last decade.
The defense cited a condition the Cosby has had for some time, keratoconus, which causes the cornea to thin progressively. The degenerative disease has left Cosby legally blind and his attorneys say can be documented both by doctors and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where Cosby has filed for a certificate of legal blindness.
Not everyone is buying the claim, however. This from social media: “Bill Cosby’s lawyer says he’s legally blind… so the only way he can identify his accusers would be to run his hands all over their bodies.”
Pennsylvania prosecutors are arguing that his visual difficulties will not prevent him from participating in his own defense.
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