The state investigation did not indicate when Judge Simpson, who finished her career in the Bronx, received her diagnosis. But it noted that her lawyers gave the commission medical records in February showing that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s at “an advanced level uncommon to a person of her age.”“The commission sought to balance its responsibility to ensure public confidence in a capable judiciary with compassion for Judge Simpson and her family over her heartbreaking Alzheimer’s diagnosis,” Mr. Tembeckjian said in his statement. Judge Simpson’s family declined to comment on the details of her illness. When Judge Simpson ran through the list of reasons for why she was denying the request, Mr. Cruz’s lawyer, Justin Bonus, was visibly upset, according to a video of the hearing. Bonus informed Judge Simpson that she seemed to have misunderstood the evidence in the case — among other things, mistakenly suggesting that a prosecution witness who testified at the hearing had testified at trial.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2020 20:15 UTC