Robert M. Morgenthau

Robert Morris Morgenthau ( /ˈmɔrɡənθɔː/ 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.

Early life

Robert Morris 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 long-time Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. 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 grandmother was born in Montgomery, Alabama.^[1] From his earliest days, Robert Morris Morgenthau was well-connected politically. The Morgenthau family home was near Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Springwood Estate at Hyde Park, New York, and he grew up knowing Roosevelt.

Early years

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.

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.

Departure

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 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."^[7]

2005 election campaign

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.^[8][9] Snyder won the endorsement of the New York Times which, like virtually all of the city's establishment, had long been supportive of Morgenthau. ^[10]

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.^[11] 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."^[12][13] 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.^[14] Vance went on to win the primary election on September 15, 2009^[15] and the subsequent general election on November 3.^[16] On January 20, 2010, Morgenthau joined the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.^[17][18]

Notable cases

• Mark David Chapman (1981): Chapman pled guilty to killing John Lennon^[19]
• Bernie Goetz, the "Subway Vigilante" (1987): Charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and several gun law violations after he shot four men who were trying to rob him in 1984.^[20]
• 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.^[21]
• 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.^[22]
• 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 because millions of the laundered dollars flowed through Manhattan and First American had a subsidiary in New York. The bank was seized by federal regulators shortly before Morgenthau brought his indictment against it. Its liquidators ultimately pleaded guilty to all charges and forfeited all of the bank's American assets.^[23]
• Sante and Kenny Kimes (2000): Mom-and-son grifters convicted of murder.^[24]
• 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.^[25]

Notable Assistant District Attorneys under Morgenthau

• Sonia Sotomayor (1979–1984): Current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Andrew Cuomo (1984–1985): Current Governor of New York, previously served as New York State Attorney General and as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton.^[26]
• Lanny A. Breuer (1985–1989): Current head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.^[27]
• Eliot Spitzer (1986–1992): Former Governor and Attorney General of New York State.^[28]
• John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1989–1993): First son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy. Former journalist, lawyer, pilot, and socialite.^[29]
• Linda Fairstein (1976–2002): Former head of the Sex Crimes Unit and current author of crime novels.^[30]

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][31]

Personal life

Morgenthau was widowed and remarried, having five children by his first wife and two by his second, journalist Lucinda Franks.

Affiliations

Morgenthau's other principal civic activities are the Police Athletic League of New York City (PAL), which he has served since 1962, first as president and then chairman, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage, of which he is chairman.

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 is also a recipient of 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.

References