Manhattan District Attorney Morgenthau to retire
Legendary Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said goodbye to public service yesterday at age 89, opting to spend time with his family and tend to his upstate farm rather than run for a 10th term this year.
“Some people are slow learners and it took me a long time to realize I was getting older,” Morgenthau said jokingly at a packed news conference. “I decided I wouldn’t push my luck any further and quit while I was ahead.”
Morgenthau prosecuted common street criminals, Wall Street crooks and banks suspected of facilitating money transfers for terrorists.
His retirement after 35 years will open one of the most coveted jobs in law enforcement at year’s end.
Former Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder, who lost to him in 2005, appears to be a front-runner. Other challengers include Cyrus Vance Jr., a prosecutor under Morgenthau and the son of former President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state; Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission; and Dan Castelman, Morgenthau’s right-hand man but perhaps better known for his cameo role in “The Sopranos.”
The new district attorney follows an imposing figure. The patrician Morgenthau, who turns 90 in July, served longer than any of his predecessors.
“He is the dean of law enforcement for the last 50 years,” said Michael Cherkaskey, who served as Morgenthau’s chief of investigations in the 1980s and part of the 1990s. “This is a great man who will be terribly missed.”
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Morgenthau set the template for professionalism and “always maintained the highest ethical standards,” while Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said he “raised the bar for what district attorneys should be.”
Born into a storied family, Morgenthau seemed destined for public service. His grandfather, Henry Morgenthau Sr., served as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire for President Woodrow Wilson and his father, Henry Jr., was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s treasury secretary.
Morgenthau in 1961 was appointed Manhattan U.S. attorney by President John F. Kennedy, a boyhood friend. He was fired by Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal – a badge of honor, he said – then won election for Manhattan district attorney in 1974.
Morgenthau has served ever since, supervising close to 500 prosecutors and presiding over some of the city’s most sensational and important cases.
There were also some setbacks, most notably the prosecution of those charged in the 1989 Central Park jogger case. The suspects were convicted, but Morgenthau in 2002 threw the convictions out after another man stepped forward to claim sole responsibility.
By then, however, Morgenthau’s reputation had long been established, in real life and on screen, with “Law and Order” District Attorney Adam Schiff modeled after Morgenthau.
Morgenthau’s simple advice for his successor: “Fly straight.”