LONG ISLAND, NY — A former Long Island justice who championed the fight against corruption in Suffolk County during the 90s, exposing improperly handled criminal cases and becoming the first judge to blow the whistle from the bench, died Nov. 30 at the age of 89.
The Brooklyn native, who served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War then worked his way through law school at night, was a renaissance man, later building "a sterling reputation as a masterful trial attorney with a specialization in criminal defense before being elected in 1975 to the New York state bench, his son, Gary Namm said in a phone interview on Monday.
Namm, who settled in Stony Brook, served 17 years on the bench, and in that time, saw abuses of criminal procedure law — improper evidence and forced confessions — to secure quick convictions, but rather than turn a blind eye as he had been told, he exposed it by calling on two consecutive state governors — Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo — to probe the allegations when he did not get any action on the matter locally, Gary recalled.
"He was the very first person who had the guts to not turn his eyes — as he was directed to do," Gary said.
In the end, Namm's allegations were proved and a number of people resigned.
His father's call for action ignited years of "a greatly-needed clean-up in Suffolk," but it cost him his renomination to...
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