By Verena Dobnik
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor lavished praise on her onetime mentor, former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, saying at his funeral last Thursday that he made her the human being and legal mind she is today.
More than 1,000 mourners filled Temple Emanu-El, the Manhattan synagogue where he was a trustee for half a century.
Notables included New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., as well as journalist Dan Rather, former Mayor David Dinkins, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly and actor Tony Danza.
Morgenthau died July 21 after a brief illness, 10 days short of his 100th birthday.
"I hope my voice will not break too much with tears as I speak today," Sotomayor said. "Without Morgenthau, I would be neither the person nor the justice I am today."
He gave Sotomayor, a New York native, her first job out of Yale Law School in 1979, as an assistant district attorney.
Sotomayor credited him with transforming the district attorney's role, creating specialized teams that are now a staple of many prosecutors' offices, devoted to sex crimes, identity theft, fraud, cold cases and a citywide narcotics unit. The justice said Morgenthau also expanded the scope of the office, tackling corruption, racketeering and financial crimes on an international scale.
Looking out at those gathered, the justice said she was speaking on behalf of all who had worked under "the boss," as his staff called him.
Morgenthau was nearly 90 when he retired in 2009 after 35 years as Manhattan district attorney, having overseen thousands of cases, including that of John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman, subway vigilante Bernard Goetz, mob boss John Gotti and "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers.
Earlier in his career, Morgenthau was Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
In addition to his seven children, survivors include his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lucinda Franks; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Published: Mon, Jul 29, 2019
