Paul J. Curran

Paul Jerome Curran (February 21, 1933, in Manhattan – September 4, 2008 in Manhattan) was an American Republican politician who served in the New York State Assembly and fought corruption as a federal prosecutor and as the state's commissioner of investigation.

Early years

Curran was born in Manhattan of February 21, 1933. His father was Thomas J. Curran, who served as the Republican leader in Manhattan in the 1940s and 1950s. Curran attended Xavier High School. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1953 and from the Fordham University School of Law in 1956. After serving as an officer in the United States Air Force, he spent three years prosecuting narcotics cases in the United States Attorney's office in Manhattan.^[1]

Curran was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1962 representing a district on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[2] He stepped down from the position in 1966 to represent New York City in Albany as its lobbyist appointed to the position by Mayor of New York John Lindsay. Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller named him to the New York State Commission of Investigation in 1968, elevating him to chairman the following year. Under his leadership, and despite the body's lack of authority to prosecute crimes they had uncovered, the Commission exposed kickbacks and fraud in Buffalo and Albany.^[1]

He was appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1973. He served until 1975, obtaining convictions of Carmine Tramunti, the head of the Lucchese crime family, and Representative Bertram L. Podell. He obtained an indictment against nursing home operator Bernard Bergman, that later led to a guilty plea in a $1.2 million Medicaid fraud case. He was a consultant to the Pentagon on intelligence matters in 1976.^[1]

Special counsel

In 1979, United States Attorney General Griffin Bell appointed Curran as a special counsel to investigate loans made to the peanut business owned by President Jimmy Carter by a bank controlled by Bert Lance, a friend of the president and the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Unlike Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski who were named as special prosecutors to investigate the Watergate scandal, Curran's position as special counsel meant that he would not be able to file charges on his own, but would require the approval of Assistant Attorney General Philip Heymann.^[3] As special counsel, he became the first lawyer to question a sitting president under oath as part of an investigation of that president.^[1][4][5]

The investigation was concluded in October 1979, with Curran announcing that no evidence had been found to support allegations that funds loaned from the National Bank of Georgia had been diverted to Carter's 1976 presidential campaign.^[6]

1982 New York gubernatorial primary run

Curran entered the Republican primary race in 1982.^[7] Curran lost in the primary to Lewis Lehrman by a 4-1 margin. The gubernatorial election that was ultimately won by Democrat Mario Cuomo.^[8]

Personal life

Curran married the former Barbara Ann Frank in 1954. He had been an attorney with the firm of Kaye Scholer, with various breaks, since 1961.^[1][4] He lived in Manhattan and Spring Lake, New Jersey. He died on September 4, 2008 in Manhattan of complications of cancer, and was survived by his wife, three sons, four daughters and 22 grandchildren.^[1]

References