“He really was a unique character in the Brooklyn legal world,” said Gary Farrell, a defense attorney and past president of the Kings County Criminal Bar Association. “He was known as a fair judge. He was one of the few criminal judges who was never a prosecutor, but he was known by many to be fair to both sides. He like the theater of a trial and always knew how to cut to the heart of the matter quickly.”

Farrell explained that Tomei never worked for the district attorneys office, said that it didn’t stop attorneys from both the DA’s Office and the criminal defense side from viewing Tomei as a fair judge.

“I had done a suppression hearing before him on a drug case and I cross-examined a cop, who had a bunch of inconsistencies, but the motion was denied,” Farrell said. “Eventually, the case went to trial and the guy was found not guilty. Two weeks later, he spotted me on Court Street and he said, ‘I’m really glad you won that case, because I should have suppressed that evidence.’ That meant a lot to me because it was the only time a judge ever apologized to me for anything.”

Prior to becoming a judge, Tomei used his famous wit to disarm judges and juries. George Farkas, a veteran prosecutor, explained how much he learned about handling juries from trying cases against Tomei.

“I tried a case against him and he didn’t concentrate too much on the case. Instead he concentrated on making the jury laugh,” Farkas said. “I couldn’t believe it when I lost that case, but that’s when I learned that making a jury laugh was very powerful.

“Later, I tried a case with him as co-counsel, and I was able to join in the merriment and cracking jokes with him and we won,” Farkas continued. “When I went in front of him as a judge, I tried to make the jury laugh, like I learned from him, but he stopped me and said, ‘I’m the only one who can make jokes around here.’”

Tomei, the uncle of Academy Award-winning actress Marisa Tomei, often joked that his niece took away some of his stature, as he became known as Marisa’s uncle, but he was a bit of an actor himself. He was a member of a Brooklyn Heights theatre group and played a part in a number of smaller plays. What he became known for, though, were his stand-up routines during an annual judges’ conference.

“He was known for his sharp wit, so one year they invited him to do something like five or 10 minutes of standup comedy,” said Judge Barry Kamins. “He was very entertaining, cracking jokes related to the courts. It became an annual thing where he would do 20 minutes of stand-up every year. Judges looked forward to it.”

Kamins, who was administrative judge of the Brooklyn Supreme Court, Criminal Term, said that when it came to his duties as a judge, Tomei always took his job seriously. A few lawyers were not too proud to admit that he could even yell at them if he felt like it was necessary.

“As a judge, he didn’t mix the humor from outside the court into the court,” Kamins said. “He tried some of the toughest cases in the building. When I was administrative judge, he was someone I relied upon, a guy who we sent the most complex cases to.”

Judge Tomei also became known around the community for his work performing civil wedding ceremonies. After retirement, he worked for Love Inc., a service where couples can hire judges for their ceremonies. He even presided over the wedding of one Brooklyn Eagle reporter.

“We just asked him out of the blue to marry us, and he graciously agreed,” she said. “During the ceremony, he read a poem about love, which he wrote himself. One of our witnesses was the poet Norman Rosten, and he and Al stayed on after the ceremony for our pot roast supper and talked about poetry.”

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