The Nation - News from May 23, 1988

The gunman who killed a federal judge after surprising him in his garden in Pelham, N. Y., was a former New York City police officer who was “consumed” by a lengthy sexual harassment suit his daughter recently lost before the jurist, authorities said. Charles L. Koster, 67, who killed himself Saturday after shooting U.S. District Judge Richard J. Daronco, 56, left a suicide note at his Bath, Pa., home indicating “his strong displeasure with the judge’s decision,” said James Esposito, deputy assistant director for the FBI in New York. Carolee Koster, a former management employee of Chase Manhattan Bank, filed a lawsuit in 1981 against the bank and Allan Ross, another management employee, accusing them of sexual harassment and salary discrimination. On May 19, Daronco ruled against her in the $2.5-million lawsuit. The New York Times reported that Koster’s daughter had earlier rejected a large settlement offer.