Blind man often ''sees'' more than those with perfect vision

Blind lawyer makes his case

You adapt, he says. Crown prosecutor downplays disability

SUE MONTGOMERY
The Gazette

The trial of Richard Graveline, a hardened criminal with a penchant for abusing women, is about to resume.

Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Lortie begins to speak when suddenly the crown prosecutor stands. All eyes in the room turn toward him. In a soft voice, he respectfully interrupts the judge: "The accused is not yet here, your honour."

For a second, the judge, clerk and defence lawyer seem taken aback, staring at Harry Pierre-Etienne, whose expression is hidden behind dark sunglasses. Slowly, his mouth breaks into a "don't-underestimate-me" mischievous smirk.

The prisoner's box is indeed empty, but the bemused judge is quick to make light of the uncomfortable moment.

"I was just testing to see if you were trying to fool us," he said, looking down at the man in black robes with a guide dog asleep at his feet.

During the past 30 years of blindness, Pierre-Etienne has fine-tuned his other senses to the point where he often ''sees'' more than those who have perfect vision. Sound - or lack of it - smell, touch and taste have replaced his eyes, ravaged in adolescence by glaucoma.

Those senses helped him leave his native Haiti alone as a teenager, coach his son's sports teams, obtain a black belt in judo, cycle competitively, skate, enjoy movies (he loved Ray) and become Quebec's first blind lawyer, pleading the Crown's cases before judges and juries.

In short, he does everything seeing people do, and more, except drive a car and play tennis.

But he shrugs it off as unexceptional. Human beings have the ability to adapt to anything, he said nonchalantly.

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