Longtime New York judge, prosecutor Brown dies at 86

NEW YORK — A New York City prosecutor and judge whose 40-plus years in criminal justice stretched from the “Mean Streets” era of the 1970s to the opioid crisis has died.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown died Friday, Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan announced Saturday. He was 86. Ryan will serve as acting DA.

Brown was first appointed district attorney in 1991 by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, a Democrat. He was re-elected to six terms in office.

Brown announced in January that he would not seek re-election but would serve out the end of his term. Then in March he said he would step down June 1 because of health problems associated with Parkinson’s disease.

He was a judge for 18 years before serving as a prosecutor and was known universally as “Judge Brown.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, son of the man who appointed Brown to fill a vacancy in the district attorney’s office, said in a statement, “Judge Brown fought successfully to create safer neighborhoods and reduce crime in his borough. He took on the scourge of opioid addiction, fought to protect domestic violence victims, worked to end human trafficking and so much more.”

A highlight of Brown’s judicial career came when he presided over the arraignment of “Son of Sam” killer David Berkowitz in 1977. Brown ordered the 24-year-old to undergo psychiatric testing and maximum-security confinement.

“I remember the courtroom was packed to the rafters,” he told The Associated Press in 2017. “It was almost like the air was taken out of the room when he walked in.”

Richard A. Brown