Easy to fix, try if the utf8 codec can decode the line, and except by displaying possibly like
File cannot be decoded with utf-8 codec
on the statusscr, setting filename to something empty (such as the empty string, '') and setting self.lineLinkedList to LineLinkedList(['\n']).
To recreate bug, use FILE_NAV to open any __pycache__ folder, and try opening any .pyc files.