New York Justice Suspended; Charged With Taking Bribes

A New York state Supreme Court justice was suspended Thursday after being indicted on charges of taking more than $45,000 in bribes to fix criminal cases.

William Brennan, 66, a former state assemblyman and senator, was charged in a 26-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, U.S. Atty. Raymond Dearie said.

Brennan, a justice in New York City since 1969, was immediately suspended from all judicial functions by the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal.

Racketeering Statute

The judge was charged with violations of a federal racketeering statute, including conspiracy, extortion, interstate travel to promote and facilitate bribery and fraudulent use of interstate telephone communications, Dearie said.

Dearie said the investigation by his office and the FBI hits “the foundation of the judicial system and the integrity of the people who are in it.”

The charges stemmed from Brennan’s alleged acceptance of bribes totaling $45,000 in return for fixing felony criminal cases in his Queens courtroom starting in the early ‘70s, Dearie said.

The grand jury alleged that Brennan had a “pattern of racketeering activity.”

Murder Case Cited

The panel charged Brennan accepted bribes in the case of John Romano, who was indicted in February, 1980, for attempted murder. Brennan convicted him of two lesser offenses after a non-jury trial, then granted a defense motion to set aside the guilty verdict, the panel said.

The charges also included three other cases involving two gamblers and a drug dealer.

Brennan could not be reached for comment on the indictment.

Brennan served as a Transit Authority police officer from 1941 to 1945, received his law degree from New York University in 1948 and served as a state assemblyman from 1955 to 1964.

He subsequently served as a Criminal Court judge from 1964 to 1965, as a state senator from 1966 to 1969, and became a justice of the state Supreme Court in 1969. In New York, the Supreme Court is the principal trial court for major civil and criminal cases, the equivalent of California’s Superior Courts.