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Thursday, May 20, 2010
Texas financier R. Allen Stanford's attorneys said that jail has reduced their client to a "wreck of a man" who is severely depressed, forgets conversations, can no longer see out of one eye and believes he is "losing his mind."
The description of Stanford's mental and physical condition was contained in a motion filed by his attorneys asking a federal judge, for a third time, to grant the jailed financier a bond so he can be free while awaiting his trial.
Stanford is due to go on trial in January on charges he bilked investors out of $7 billion as part of a massive Ponzi scheme. The latest motion was prepared with the help of Harvard law professor and celebrity defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a consultant hired by Stanford.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston has denied two previous requests to grant Stanford a bond, agreeing with federal prosecutors that he is a serious flight risk. An appeals court has upheld Hittner's rulings.
Hittner did not rule on the merits of the motion. However, the judge removed the motion from the record for not following court rules, including being typed in 14 point font and being double spaced, meaning it will have to be resubmitted.
In the 36-page motion, Robert Bennett, one of Stanford's attorneys, described the financier as a healthy individual when he surrendered to authorities on June 18, 2009, the day he was indicted.
"Now, nearly one year in detention later, Mr. Stanford's incarceration has reduced him to a wreck of a man," Bennett wrote.
Bennett said Stanford can no longer see out of his right eye or feel anything on the right side of his face after he was beaten by an inmate last year. He said Stanford is in the "throes of a major depression" which is getting worse.
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