[nfbmi-talk] right to access courts, etc.

[joe harcz Comcast]

There is a lot that is troubling to me about this story. One is that macular degeneration is not caused by diabetes. Regardless if this person is legally blind or substantially visually impaired he has the absolute rightunder the ADA and 504 to recieve information in his most eeffective format in order to obtain due process and equal protection under the law.

This also goes to the fact that most proceedings in Michigan if not all including those with the Michigan Administrative Hearing System do not afford, in docummented fashion all documents in a timely and accessable manner to people who are blind. 

These are gross violations of the ADA and 504 and rob each and everyone of us from the due process and equal protection afforded others.

That is plain upon its face.

Joe Harcz
Bashara expected in court today over request to use laptop in jail By Elisha Anderson Detroit Free Press Staff Writer A hearing this morning in the case

of a Grosse Pointe Park businessman charged with the murder of his wife is expected to center around whether Bob Bashara should be allowed to have a laptop

in jail to review thousands of pages related to his case. During a hearing last month, Bashara told Wayne County Circuit Judge Vonda Evans that he suffers

from macular degeneration, an eye condition caused by his diabetes, and being able to have the computer in jail would make it easier for him to review

the documents. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey argued against allowing him to have a laptop saying he would have a "privilege far and above

any other inmate in the county jail. Mark Procida, one of Bashara's attorneys, told the court that he has been practicing law for nearly three decades

and Bashara's case has more discovery than any other he has been involved in, adding lawyers would "be there for years" if they were to spend the time

it would take to go over all the information with him using their laptops in the jail like prosecutors suggested. Last month, Evans said she wanted to

meet with a representative from the Wayne County Jail, where Bashara is behind bars pending his trial, which is scheduled for March 3. The laptop would

not give Bashara Internet access, she said. Evans said she doesn't want to give the appearance of giving Bashara any rights or privileges that others don't

have, but said this is not a typical case, noting the number of attorneys working on it. Bashara's wife, Jane Bashara, was strangled and found in her SUV

on Detroit's east side in January 2012. Bob Bashara has maintained his innocence in her death, despite an admission from his former handyman, Joseph Gentz,

who said he killed Jane Bashara at her husband's direction and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Bashara has admitted he solicited a local

business owner to find someone to kill Gentz in jail. Witnesses testified about Bashara's alternative lifestyle, which included secret lovers, plans for

a new life with a mistress and BDSM - bondage, discipline, sadomasochism - during his preliminary examination in September. Prosecutors have cited the

alternative lifestyle and Bob Bashara's former mistress as motives in his wife's death.