Jan 12, 2007 · With a degree from Yale Law School, Morgenthau joined the firm of Patterson, Belknap & Webb. His first boss, Robert Patterson, remains one of his heroes. A federal appellate judge and secretary of war before he returned to private practice, Patterson believed everyone should devote a third of one’s time to public service.
Dec 29, 2019 · U.S. Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau removes a photo of John F. Kennedy at his office on Jan. 15, 1970, his final day as U.S. attorney in New York. | AP ... Morgenthau survived to go to law school ...
Jul 22, 2019 · Robert M. Morgenthau in 1984. He was the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York for nearly nine years and the Manhattan district attorney for 35 more.
Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney from 1975 until he retired at age 90 in 2009, in his law office in Midtown last month. ... law school, medical school and so …
Image. Mr. Morgenthau was sworn in for his first term as Manhattan district attorney on Jan. 2, 1975, after winning a special election necessitated by the resignation of Frank S. Hogan, who had been district attorney for 32 years. Credit... Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times.
His grandfather, the real estate tycoon Henry Morgenthau Sr. , was President Wilson’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in World War I and a prominent voice against Armenian genocide. Robert’s father, Henry Jr., was Roosevelt’s treasury secretary from 1934 to 1945, and his mother, Elinor (Fatman) Morgenthau, was a niece of Herbert H. Lehman, the New York Democratic governor and United States senator.
And in a case that seemed to confirm national impressions of New York City as a cesspool of crime and race hatred, Mr. Morgenthau was vilified for what many called a waffling prosecution of Mr. Goetz, a white loner who shot four young black men on a subway train in 1984 after they surrounded him and demanded money.
Found guilty of misappropriating more than $100 million from his company, Mr. Kozlowski was sentenced to eight to 25 years, although he won parole in 2014. In a bizarre case, Mr. Morgenthau may have been the only prosecutor in history to convict a mother and son for murder without a body or a witness.
In an interview with The New York Times in 2009 after announcing that he would not seek a 10th term, Mr. Morgenthau ruminated on the night in 1944 when his ship was torpedoed by Nazi warplanes and went down with 47 of his shipmates. “I was swimming around without a life jacket,” he recalled.
Although he cultivated an image of imperviousness to public pressure, Mr. Morgenthau was often barraged with criticism, particularly in cases involving racial bias or police brutality. Critics said he was slow to respond to an epidemic of police corruption in the 1980s, including cases in which transit officers falsely arrested eight black men, who sued and collectively won $1 million in damages.
After resisting pressure from the Nixon administration for a year, Mr. Morgenthau resigned as federal prosecutor in January 1970. He was briefly a deputy to Mayor John V. Lindsay, but quit to again run for governor.
Many prosecutors and lawyers in the Lower Hudson Valley began their legal careers in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office under the legendary Robert Morgenthau. On learning of his death Monday, we asked some to share their memories and how the experience shaped their careers.
"Mr. Morgenthau set the gold standard for all prosecutors. He wanted tough prosecutors who always did the right thing and were balanced with mercy and fairness. He was a role model to all of the prosecutors who worked with him; and his leadership, integrity and influence will continue for decades in all sectors of public service throughout the United States. This world is a better place because of this great man."