Legendary DA Morgenthau Leaving After 35 Years

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang  AN ERA ABOUT TO END: Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announces that he will not seek another term and will retire at the end of this year at age 90 after a ground-breaking 35-year tenure in which his office took on increasingly sophisticated whitecollar prosecutions even as street crime in the borough was dramatically reduced.

Robert M. Morgenthau, the 89- year-old Manhattan District Attorney known for pioneering work in prosecuting white-collar crime who has held the office since 1975, announced Feb. 27 that he will not seek re-election to a ninth full term.

Mr. Morgenthau's career as Manhattan's top prosecutor has spanned five Mayors—he was inducted during the administration of Abe Beame.

'Not Pushing My Luck'

Joined by his wife, Lucinda Franks Morgenthau, the DA told reporters at his downtown office that he is in good health but decided that he would not seek the office in order to spend more time with his children, grand-children and great-grand-children.

ROY RICHTER: Morgenthau 'an institution.'

 

 

"It took me a long time to realize that I was getting older," said Mr. Morgenthau, whose hearing problems made his wife often have to repeat questions from reporters. "I decided that I would not push my luck any longer."

Mr. Morgenthau said that he was proud of the office he has run with an understated, flinty style that made him the model for Adam Schiff, the original DA on "Law and Order." He estimated that the DA's office under his watch has prosecuted 350,000 cases.

He sidestepped questions about whether he would support the candidacy of his chief deputy, Daniel Castleman, to succeed him.

"I don't expect to be very active in the campaign," Mr. Morgenthau said, adding that he wanted to concentrate on finishing his term. "We've got a lot of stuff in the oven and we're going to do everything we can to get it out."

'Wasn't Shy About Using Power'

Josh Freeman, a History Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, said that during Mr. Morgenthau's lengthy tenure he "obviously administered a hugely important office that dealt with criminal behavior of the violent sort, but also white-collar crime and also even labor issues, including criminal activity by unions or union leaders. He had a lot of power, he had a lot of discretion and he was not shy about using it."

John Jay College of Criminal Justice lecturer Eugene O'Donnell said that Mr. Morgenthau stood out from other DAs because local prosecutors typically concentrate on street crime, but his office went out of its way to pursue big-time offenders who were usually the targets of Federal investigators, such as Tyco CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski for tax evasion and embezzlement.

"DA Morgenthau really did stretch out to do more complex cases that would have scared off a lesser person," Mr. O'Donnell said.

Mark Rosenthal, who brought allegations of criminal wrongdoing within District Council 37 to Mr. Morgenthau's Office shortly after he was elected president of the union's Local 983 in 1998, credited the DA with unearthing widespread corruption later that year that ranged from massive embezzlement to the fixing of the union's 1995-96 wage contract vote.

'He Cleaned Up the Union'

"He did a thorough job of cleaning up the union," Mr. Rosenthal said, lamenting that DC 37's international union had not followed up with the kind of reforms needed to guard against future wrongdoing.

He said of Mr. Morgenthau's decision to step down at the end of the year, "It's a great loss to the city."

City Council Public Safety Chair Peter F. Vallone, Jr., who served as a prosecutor under Mr. Morgenthau from 1986 to 1992, said in a statement: "We owe much of our city's low crime rate and safe streets to his years of great service."

Captains Endowment Association President Roy T. Richter recalled that when he ran a grand larceny unit in Manhattan South, focusing on pickpockets, Mr. Morgenthau's office was helpful to the officers he oversaw.

"His office always gave us the right resources and were sure that the repeat offenders got significant jail sentences," he said.

Police Unions Backed Foe

Nonetheless, Mr. Richter is one of several law-enforcement union leaders who endorsed the candidacy of Leslie Crocker Snyder this time around, as many of them did four years ago. The unions, along with Ms. Snyder, had said that Mr. Morgenthau served admirably but that it was time for someone younger who was more attuned to the current crime trends to run the office.

Ms. Snyder, a former Manhattan Supreme Court Justice, had said she wanted to pursue alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders and small-time drug offenders. Glenn Martin, vice president of development and public affairs at the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, said that Mr. Morgenthau in the last few years has started to be more lenient in cases involving non-violent drug offenders and looked at treatment as an alternative to incarceration.

"He's been open to diversion [from incarceration] as a way to save the state money," Mr. Martin said.

Mr. Morgenthau's father, Henry, served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during the Great Depression, and his grand-father, Henry Sr., served as the nation's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

When asked by a reporter what advice he would give to his successor, the DA offered one of his trademark oneline answers.

"Fly straight," he said.