Richard Casey, 74; first blind federal judge heard high-profile cases

NEW YORK —  Richard Conway Casey, who was the nation’s first blind federal trial judge and presided over high-profile cases including a challenge to abortion law and the Peter Gotti trial, has died. He was 74.

Casey, who spent almost a decade on the bench, died Thursday, his office said. The cause was an apparent heart attack.

He was nominated for federal judgeship by President Clinton in 1997, 10 years after he became blind from retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited degenerative eye disease. He was a fixture in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan, arriving each morning with his guide dog, Barney.

Casey presided over several trials that attracted public interest. In addition to the constitutional challenge of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, he presided over the prosecution of Gotti, the Gambino crime family boss.

On the bench, he was blunt with lawyers and witnesses alike.

During the 2004 trial to consider the law banning certain second-trimester abortions, Casey asked one doctor if physicians ever hear a baby cry during an abortion. He asked the same doctor if a mother can detect in advance that a baby will be born blind.

Casey ruled that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was unconstitutional because it did not include an exemption for cases in which the procedure was used to protect a woman’s health.

In several interviews with the Associated Press in recent years, Casey said he used humor and a newly developed love of skiing to help cope with his loss of sight.

“It doesn’t start out funny being blind,” Casey said. “You get mad. You get angry. You get depressed. But then you choose to either sit there and wait to die or you get up and you move on. Once you make that decision, then you can find humor.”

Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Casey graduated from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. As a lawyer, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division in New York, as well as having a private practice.

He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1964 and lost his vision entirely in 1987, just after the New York Giants won the Super Bowl, 39-20, over Denver in the Rose Bowl. Casey, a Giants season ticket holder since 1961, treasured the memory and continued to attend games, as well as Broadway plays.

Casey had to overcome skeptics when he took on a load of 300 to 400 cases beginning in late 1997, using computer and audio technology while studying documents and preparing to speak in court.

Some questioned whether a blind judge could accurately assess the credibility of a witness he could not see. Casey said truth could be found by following the facts to see if they are strung together in a coherent, logical way. He did occasionally swap a trademark case with a colleague because it depended on visual observation.

Survivors include a son and a granddaughter.