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Robert Morgenthau

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Robert Morgenthau
New York County District Attorney
In office
January 1, 1975 – December 31, 2009
Preceded byRichard Kuh
Succeeded byCyrus Vance, Jr.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
In office
December 4, 1962 – January 15, 1970
Nominated byJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded byVincent L. Broderick (Acting)
Succeeded byWhitney N. Seymour, Jr.
In office
April 18, 1961 – September 4, 1962
Nominated byJohn F. Kennedy
Preceded bySamuel H. Gillespie, Jr.
Succeeded byVincent L. Broderick (Acting)
Personal details
Born
Robert Morris Morgenthau

(1919-07-31) July 31, 1919 (age 105)
New York, New York, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouses
Children7
Alma materAmherst College
Yale Law School
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch/serviceUnited States Navy
Years of service1940–1945
RankLieutenant commander
Battles/warsWorld War II

Robert Morris Morgenthau (/ˈmɔːrɡənθɔː/ MORG-ən-thaw; born July 31, 1919) is an American lawyer. From 1975 until his retirement in 2009, he was the District Attorney for New York County, the borough of Manhattan. He is the third longest-serving district attorney in United States history; only E. Michael McCann of Milwaukee County and Henry Wade of Dallas served longer.

Early life

Morgenthau was born in 1919 in New York City into a prominent Ashkenazi Jewish family that had emigrated from Baden in 1866. He is the son of Elinor (née Fatman) and long-time Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. His maternal great grandfather was Mayer Lehman, a co-founder of Lehman Brothers. His grandfather Henry Morgenthau, Sr. was United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Before going into diplomatic service, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. had made a fortune in real estate and then became a strong financial backer of President Woodrow Wilson. His paternal grandmother was born in Montgomery, Alabama.[1] From his earliest days, the Morgenthau family was well-connected politically. The family home was near Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Springwood Estate at Hyde Park, New York, and he grew up knowing Roosevelt.

After graduating from the New Lincoln School, Deerfield Academy, and Amherst College, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving for four and a half years, during World War II. He attained the final rank of Lieutenant Commander and served as the executive officer of both the USS Lansdale and the USS Harry F. Bauer. He saw action in both the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters, mostly aboard destroyers.[2] Morgenthau graduated from Yale Law School in 1948 and joined the New York law firm of Patterson, Belknap & Webb, becoming a partner in 1954.

Career

U.S. Attorney

In 1961, after twelve years of practicing corporate law, Morgenthau accepted an appointment from President John F. Kennedy as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 1962, he was the Democratic nominee for Governor of New York, and resigned his federal office. After his defeat by the incumbent Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Morgenthau was re-appointed U.S. Attorney and served for the remainder of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.[3] As a United States Attorney, Morgenthau established a special unit to investigate securities fraud and prosecuted highly publicized bribery cases against city officials and IRS attorneys and accountants.[citation needed]

In January 1969, following the election of President Richard M. Nixon, Morgenthau remained in office and for months resisted increasingly public pressures from the Nixon Administration to resign. He retained support from New York's liberal Republican U.S. Senators Jacob K. Javits and Charles Goodell. Morgenthau and his supporters claimed that replacing him would disrupt his work on vital cases and that Nixon might be seeking to prevent Morgenthau from pursuing investigations that would prove embarrassing to the President or his friends. Nonetheless, Morgenthau's position became increasingly untenable. While well-regarded, he was after all a Democrat thought to harbor political aspirations, thus Morgenthau's insistence on remaining in office seemed increasingly unreasonable to even some who initially had thought the Nixon Administration should not show him the door so quickly. He was eventually forced out of office at the end of 1969[4] and succeeded as U.S. Attorney by Republican Whitney North Seymour, Jr.

Return to politics

Afterwards, Morgenthau served briefly in the reformist administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay as a Deputy Mayor before resigning to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1970. Morgenthau was less successful in raising funds and developing support than were two other candidates, Arthur Goldberg and Howard Samuels, and, within weeks, he withdrew from the race. Goldberg won the nomination and was subsequently defeated by Rockefeller.[5]

District Attorney of New York County

Morgenthau returned to private life until 1974, when he was elected to the office of District Attorney of New York County. This was a special election caused by the death of Frank Hogan, who had served as D.A. for more than 30 years. Morgenthau defeated Hogan's interim successor, Richard Kuh. He was elected to a full term in 1977 and was re-elected seven times. He was not opposed in a general election from 1985 to 2005.[6]

Morgenthau was subjected to criticism in the press for his conduct in the wake of a major police corruption scandal.[7] Eight men who were falsely arrested by transit police officers in the scandal that shook the department were awarded more than $1 million in damages by a Federal judge. One plaintiff, Ronald Yeadon, was a police officer. He was arrested twice while off duty and accused of sexually abusing a woman.[8]

Morgenthau retained a national profile while serving in what was technically a local office, in part because of his dogged pursuit of white-collar crime. According to Gary Naftalis, a prominent Manhattan defense attorney who had been an assistant to Morgenthau in the 1960s, Morgenthau believed that prosecuting "crime in the suites" was every bit as important as prosecuting "crime in the streets."[9]

Morgenthau announced in 2005, aged 85, that he would run for a ninth full term as district attorney. For the first time in decades, he encountered a vigorous primary opponent, former state court judge Leslie Crocker Snyder.[10][11] Snyder won the endorsement of the New York Times which, like virtually all of the city's establishment, had long been supportive of Morgenthau. [12]

Morgenthau won the Democratic primary with 59% of the vote to Snyder's 41%. In the general election, he was once again the candidate for all political parties in the election, having been nominated by the Democrats, Republicans and the Working Families Party.[13] Morgenthau won re-election with more than 99% of the vote.

Retirement

On February 27, 2009 Morgenthau announced that he would not seek re-election in 2009, saying "I never expected to be here this long ... [R]ecently I figured that I'd served 25 years beyond the normal retirement age."[14][15] He was replaced by Cyrus Vance, Jr., a prosecutor under Morgenthau and the son of former President Jimmy Carter's secretary of state Cyrus Vance. Morgenthau officially endorsed Vance on June 25.[16] Vance went on to win the primary election on September 15, 2009[17] and the subsequent general election on November 3.[18] On January 20, 2010, Morgenthau joined the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.[19][20]

Notable cases

  • Mark David Chapman (1981): Chapman pleaded guilty to killing John Lennon[21]
  • Bernie Goetz, the "Subway Vigilante" (1987): Charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and several gun law violations after he shot four men whom he felt were trying to rob him in 1984.[22]
  • Robert Chambers, the "Preppie Killer" (1988): After confessing to killing an 18-year-old girl, Chambers was convicted of manslaughter and served 15 years in prison.[23]
  • Central Park Jogger (1989): Five teenage suspects were convicted of assaulting and raping a woman in Central Park. The convictions were later vacated in 2002 when another man said he attacked the victim.[24]
  • BCCI (1991): A fraud investigation revealed that the bank laundered massive amounts of money for criminal enterprises and had unlawfully gained control of First American Bankshares, a major American bank. Morgenthau claimed jurisdiction on two counts—not only did First American have a subsidiary in New York, but millions of the laundered dollars had flowed through Manhattan. The bank was seized by federal regulators shortly before Morgenthau indicted it for what he described as "the largest bank fraud in world financial history."[25] Its liquidators ultimately pleaded guilty to all charges and forfeited all of the bank's American assets.[26]
  • Sante and Kenny Kimes (2000): Mom-and-son grifters convicted of murder.[27]
  • Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz (2005): The top two executives of Tyco were found guilty of stealing more than $150 million from the company they had been entrusted to manage.[28]
  • Tupac Shakur (1994)

Notable Assistant District Attorneys under Morgenthau

Television character

The character of District Attorney Adam Schiff (played by actor Steven Hill), the New York district attorney in the long running TV series Law & Order, was loosely based on Morgenthau. It is reported that Morgenthau was a fan of the character.[2][34]

Affiliations

Morgenthau's other principal civic activities were the Police Athletic League of New York City (PAL), which he served since 1962, first as president and then chairman, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, of which he was chairman.[citation needed]

Award

In 2005, Morgenthau received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York". Morgenthau also received the Association Medal of the New York City Bar Association for exceptional contributions to the honor and standing of the Bar in the City of New York.[citation needed]

Personal life

His first wife was Martha Pattridge whom he met in college;[35] they had five children: Joan Morgenthau; Anne Pattridge Morgenthau; Robert Pattridge Morgenthau; Elinor Gates Morgenthau, and Barbara Elizabeth Morgenthau. His wife died in 1972.[36] In 1977, he married Pulitzer Prize winning author, Lucinda Franks, a Christian.[37][38] They have two children: Joshua Franks Morgenthau (born 1984) and Amy Elinor Morgenthau (born 1990).[36][37] They live in New York City. His son Joshua runs the family farm, Fishkill Farms, founded by Henry Morgenthau, Jr.[39]

References

  1. ^ Morgenthau testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee, July 16, 2009
  2. ^ a b Robert Morgenthau from the Jewish Virtual Library
  3. ^ Aborn For Manhattan DA or Morgenthau Forever?, NYPD Confidential (December 1, 2008).
  4. ^ Richard Perez-Pena, U.S. Attorney Leaving Post In Manhattan The New York Times (December 3, 1992).
  5. ^ David L. Stebenne, Arthur J. Goldberg, New Deal Liberal (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) pp. 375-378. ISBN 0-19-507105-0.
  6. ^ MSNBC report on Morgenthau
  7. ^ Levine, Richard (November 25, 1987). "Koch Pledges Inquiry on Arrests by Transit Police". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Emery, Richard (December 12, 1987). "The Even Sadder New York Police Saga". The New York Times.
  9. ^ McCoy, Kevin. Feared D.A. relishes taking down hotshots. USA Today, 2002-06-24.
  10. ^ Geoffrey Gray, Morgenthau Gets Witchy About Leslie Crocker Snyder, New York Magazine (November 6, 2005).
  11. ^ Leslie Eaton, Snyder Faults Morgenthau on Drug Laws, The New York Times (September 9, 2005).
  12. ^ When to End an Era, The New York Times (August 30, 2005).
  13. ^ http://www.judicialaccountability.org/articles/judgessnyderandda.htm
  14. ^ Karen Freifeld, Morgenthau, Manhattan Prosecutor Since 1961, Won't Run Again, Bloomberg (February 29, 2008).
  15. ^ http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/saturday/news/ny-nymorg286052675feb28,0,6367166.story
  16. ^ Elingon, John (June 25, 2009). "Manhattan District Attorney Endorses a Candidate to Succeed Him". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  17. ^ Lisi, Clemente (September 15, 2009). "Cy Vance wins Manhattan DA race". New York Post.
  18. ^ Gonen, Yoav (2009-11-04). "NYC Election Results". NYPost. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
  19. ^ http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=11850679
  20. ^ Jones, Ashby (January 20, 2010). "Morgenthau, 90, Lands at Hard-Charging Wachtell Lipton". The Wall Street Journal.
  21. ^ Kenneth Lovett, Mark David Chapman tells his version of John Lennon slay, New York Daily News (August 19, 2008).
  22. ^ Norimitsu Onishi, Court Case Nudges Goetz Out of Cocoon;Subway Gunman Back in Spotlight, The New York Times (December 31, 1995).
  23. ^ Jose Martinez, Preppie killer Robert Chambers pleads guilty to selling cocaine, assaulting cop, New York Daily News (August 11, 2008).
  24. ^ Prosecutor: Drop all convictions in Central Park jogger case, CNN (December 10, 2002).
  25. ^ Peter Truell, Larry Gurwin, False Profits. The Inside Story of BCCI, the world’s most corrupt financial Empire, 1992, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, ISBN 0-395-62339-1
  26. ^ Seth Faison Jr., COMPANY NEWS; Saudi Banker Is Charged With Fraud in B.C.C.I. Case, The New York Times (July 2, 1992).
  27. ^ http://crime.about.com/b/2005/03/22/sante-and-kenneth-kimes-get-life-sentences.htm
  28. ^ Joel Roberts, Tyco Execs Found Guilty: Kozlowski, Swartz Convicted For Looting Company Of $600 Million, CBS News (June 17, 2005).
  29. ^ Kathy Chu, Cuomo makes a name for himself in replacing Spitzer, USA Today (April 24, 2007).
  30. ^ "Obama names Varney as to antitrust role at Justice". Reuters. January 22, 2009.
  31. ^ Daniel Gross, Eliot Spitzer: How New York's attorney general became the most powerful man on Wall Street., Slate (October 21, 2004).
  32. ^ Katharine Q. Seelye, John F. Kennedy Jr., Heir To a Formidable Dynasty, The New York Times (July 19, 1999).
  33. ^ Katherine Bouton, LINDA FAIRSTEIN VS. RAPE, The New York Times (February 25, 1990).
  34. ^ Robert Kolker, Happy 85th Birthday, Bob Morgenthau, New York Magazine (July 19, 2004).
  35. ^ Poughkeepsie Journal: "ICYMI: Robert Morgenthau: NYC legal legend, East Fishkill farmer" by Nina Schutzman September 2, 2014
  36. ^ a b Morgenthau Family Tree retrieved October 3, 2015
  37. ^ a b Poughkeepsie Journal: "Love, respect bind polar political ties for Morgenthau, Franks" by Karen Maserjian Shan August 15, 2015 |"(Lucinda) said, 'I'm a Christian, you're a Christian. We all bear responsibility for the Holocaust, for not doing more,"
  38. ^ St. Louis Jewish Light: "Pulitzer Prize winner's memoir tells of hidden family past" BY MORTON I. TEICHER October 25, 2007
  39. ^ "Josh Morgenthau takes over family pastime". The Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
Legal offices
Preceded by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
1961 – 1962 		Succeeded by
Preceded by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
1962 – 1970 		Succeeded by
Preceded by New York County District Attorney
1975 – 2009 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Democratic Nominee for Governor of New York
1962 		Succeeded by
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