His hearing is a non issue. Unless he was blind there is no believable reason that he did not SEE Cooper in his car seat. All three times that he had the opportunity to do so that day.
You could tell me that he was completely deaf in both ears and It would still be not be even remotely believable that he didn't see him.
:doughboy: saw cooper. He didn't need to hear him to see him.
moo
He turns to acknowledge the person speaking to him just like any other person does. imo
Does a hearing aid always improve hearing?
And I was not saying the defense should use it. <mod snip>
Being deaf in one ear does not make it so he couldn't hear his son. My brother had three children and was deaf in one ear and it was never an issue. What I would love to see is this defendant trying to use the deaf ear, the blind eye, the non-smelling nose and the non-working penis as excuses for killing his son. The jury will turn a deaf ear on that, I can tell you.
I am not an expert on hearing aids, but yes, I believe that they usually improve hearing if used correctly. The exception being if someone is completely deaf from birth. Then I believe they would benefit more from cochlear implants. But if he was deaf from birth, we would have known about it, I am sure. From my recollection, it happened during childhood sometime, from a bottle rocket accident. I think it's likely there was some hearing left and thus a hearing aid would be helpful.
Ok some commentary on the hearing issue. As I have stated before I am very nearly deaf. I have only 20% of my hearing in my left ear and no hearing at all in my right ear. I have been told to buy two hearing aids by my audiologists in the past but they are freakin' expensive and not covered by health insurance. Only recently did we have an insurance company that even partially covered it. Hearing aids can cost about $4000 a piece so that's why I just said screw it on the right ear, I'll get along with my left.
Some points to consider with the hearing aid.
- Hearing loss varies wildly and is really unpredictable. I get very annoyed when people suggest that I'm exaggerating my hearing loss just because I can sometimes hear someone standing on the other side of the room but not hear the person speaking right in front of me. So there's not really any reason to discuss "how" RH actually heard because it is completely unpredictable.
- The fact that his friend was used to talking to him in his right ear signifies to me that he really did have a hearing loss. It took me forever to get friends to understand this and the fact that his friend was "used to it" shows that it's been an issue for a long enough time for people to get used to it.
- Men strangely, are very unwilling to get hearing aids. It's something I have noticed over the years. Even older veterans who would get it for free just refuse to get them. You would think that I as an young woman would have been worried about my looks more than men in their 70s but it doesn't seem to be the case. I think for men they feel like it makes them look "weak" or "lame" or "old" But him not having a hearing aid doesn't surprise me at all.
Now to the reality of his hearing being an issue. As I have stated before, RH never experienced Cooper without having hearing loss. He didn't have to "adjust" to dealing with Cooper because of his hearing loss. IOW you acclimate easily to it if it's what you've always known. So IMO his hearing loss is irrelevant. But obviously they are going to bring it up so here's some more points to consider.
- He would have "heard" Cooper in the car in his LEFT ear. What's weird about hearing loss IMO is that I can't always pinpoint where a sound is coming from because it registers in my left ear. So for example, if I don't have my hearing aid in, I can't tell when someone is calling me from a distance where the sound is originating. This has led to me often walking in front of buses and not hearing them on my right side until the driver lays on the horn. I am super mindful about crossing the street when I don't have it in and have really almost gotten hit many times.
- This means in an enclosed space like the interior of a car he would have heard Cooper in his left ear all the time. So to suggest he wouldn't have heard Cooper just because the ear closest to him wasn't working is a bunch of BS.
- The use of the phone. People are very confused because I can easily hear on the phone, albeit with the sound turned all the way up. I can talk on the phone because the sound is amplified. I never use a hearing aid on the phone and do just fine. People are often surprised when they meet me after spending months talking on the phone with me in chatty conversation, to find I struggle to hear them in person.
- For example I have to bring in a second teacher for the classes I teach whenever there is a "group discussion" because I simply can't run that part of the class. I can't hear a group of people talking in a discussion. But I can talk on the phone easily. Phones have amplifiers in them. Again his using the phone is completely normal for someone with a hearing problem. People confuse this all the time.
Finally, vibrations are how we hear. Sound waves are "vibrations" not "noises." Here's a game you can do right now to understand it. Take a wire or metal coat hanger and tie two pieces of yarn to the ends of it. (this is a fun thing to do with kids btw) Pick up the ends of the string and wrap them around your fingers. Now stand next to a table or chair and bang the dangling hanger on it. You will hear a "clattering" sound. Now put the tips of your finger in your ears. Make sure the string is wrapped around it but you don't need to put the string in your ears. Lean forward and let the dangling hanger hit the table again. When you do you will hear a sound like a Chinese Gong! It's really amazing.
This is because sound travels better through a solid than it does through the air. You can do an easier experiment of this just by tapping on your desk top and listening and then laying your ear on the desk and tapping again. Remember when you used to let your fingers walk up the side of a bath tub when you were taking a bath as a kid? Same idea.
This is important because he would have felt the movements of Cooper in the car seat. And even if Cooper was making noises in the car seat and he was completely deaf, the vibrations would have traveled through the car seat into his seat.
IMPORTANT He sat in the car with it turned off for 30 seconds, so no distractions of the hum of the vehicle. I am telling you that it's impossible that if Cooper was awake and even moving, that he wouldn't have "heard" him in the car.
Sorry so long. :blushing::moo:
Link demonstrating the hanger experiment.
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kogrange/sound_experiments2.html
