Originally elected against great odds, post Watergate, Judge Stuart Namm spent over sixteen years on the bench in Suffolk County, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City.
He was dubbed by the Hollywood Reporter as “the Serpico of Judges,” and by his detractors as the “Hanging Judge” and “Maximum Stu” for his willingness to frequently hand out the maximum twenty-five-years-to-life sentence in intentional murder convictions.
In 1985, he wrote New York Governor Mario Cuomo to request the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate Suffolk County’s criminal justice system, believing there was rampant corruption in the elite Police Homicide Squad and the District Attorney’s office, and that cases were being manufactured to obtain convictions in major homicide trials. After a three year investigation by the State Investigations Commission, his “whistleblowing” resulted in numerous forced resignations and transfers in the police department, at the highest level of county government, and in the police laboratory. As a result of a deal, he was denied renomination by his own political party led by his former law partner. Ultimately this led to the demise of his illustrious judicial career.
A Whistleblower’s Lament is Judge Stuart Namm’s compelling, personal account of his life in the law and politics, and the events that brought it to an end.