With a Quarter Century in Court, Justice Alan Marrus Presides With Poise
By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
JAY STREET – When a 46-year-old Brooklyn woman went undercover as a sexy thirty-something to woo one of the jurors that convicted her son of murder in hopes of altering the verdict, the story became a media sensation, even earning a long Vanity Fair article.
But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Alan D. Marrus, who had presided over the trial, saw the broader and more dangerous implications.
“I’m very conscious about the fact that there’s no one in the court process that can protect a juror but the judge,” Justice Marrus told the Eagle during a recent interview.
“The extraordinary actions of [the mother] to invade the privacy of jurors require a decisive response which sends a clear message that New York courts will protect its jurors,” Justice Marrus wrote in his decision striking down the appeal of “Undercover Mother” Doreen Giuliano.
Justice Marrus can’t officially comment on the case, since his decision is currently under appeal by the litigants. But it’s clear that, to Marrus, who has over 25 years of experience as a criminal judge, some issues are black and white.
Free the (Alternate) Jury!
For Justice Marrus, an Acting Supreme Court Justice since 1986, looking out for the interests of jurors is synonymous with maintaining the integrity of a trial. It’s one of the areas in which he’s been a trailblazer during his storied career as a judge
For example, alternate jurors used to be kept locked in a room while the other jurors were deciding a verdict – just in case one of them was needed.
“I said, ‘This is outrageous, what’d the alternate juror do? Poor alternate juror, put under house arrest!’” Justice Marrus said. “Believe it or not, that was unique.”
He became the first judge to let alternate jurors leave and be on telephone alert during deliberations. But there have been many other ‘firsts’ in this pioneering judge’s career.
Marrus was the first judge in New York state to uphold a conviction solely on DNA evidence; to sentence a defendant to life without parole; to represent himself in an Article 78 proceeding before the Court of Appeals and win a unanimous reversal of the decision against him; and to ask attorneys to evaluate a judge (himself) in an anonymous survey.
“He’s one of the top judges in the state,” said Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Albert Tomei. “He’s very knowledgeable, very efficient, he’s handled some of the highest-profile cases in the county; he’s well-respected, and he’s fair … A lot of judges rely on him for his knowledge, and he’s always willing to share.”
The Many Faces of Defendants
“I don’t see myself as tough or easy on crime — I strive to be fair,” Justice Marrus said. “That’s really what I’m here for. My job is to administer justice as fairly as possible, and treat each person as I’d like to be treated.”
For example, three young men were convicted before Justice Marrus by a jury in a case where he felt there had been “varying degrees of culpability.”
One of those young men, who was a college student, continued his education after prison and went to law school.
“This [crime] was clearly something that was unusual and life-altering for this young man,” Marrus said. “He came to me to get a reference for a job. I said I would do whatever I could to help him.”
With Justice Marrus’ support, the man passed the bar and now is an attorney with The Legal Aid Society.
“I factored in the circumstances. It wasn’t like he was a threat to society,” Marrus said.
After his decades of work in criminal law, very little fazes Justice Marrus.
In 2002, Justice Marrus became embroiled in a 60-defendant case after a high-profile bust in a Cypress Hills housing project. Everyone with drugs was arrested and charged with conspiracy based on the theory they all had conspired to split up drug-dealing territory between various Brooklyn gangs.
“Imagine the administrative nightmare of that,” Marrus said. “We had 60 different attorneys. Even finding the attorneys was hard. And how do you get them all to appear?”
“I developed a divide-and-conquer strategy. Handled them all separately. It took nine months, four trials, and the rest got dismissed or dispensed of with pleas,” he explained.
Justice Marrus shares his experience by lecturing and writing extensively on the art of presiding over a criminal trial, preparing training videos to teach other judges, and by mentoring many new judges.
“Justice Marrus has tried some of the most high-profile and high-publicity cases that have come through our courts, and he is one of the most experienced jurists in the state,” said Kings County Administrative Judge Barry Kamins.
With his extensive trial experience, Marrus helps new judges and fellow members of the judiciary with lectures on “the art of presiding over a criminal trial.”
Whether handling the assault case of New York Jet Mark Gastineau, who got charged with assault after a fist-fight at Club 54 in the 1980s, or the more recent case of a doctor who drugged his male patients so he could molest them, Marrus handles all his cases with aplomb.
“If this is your first assignment and you’re a new judge, it’s all downhill from here,” Justice Marrus said with a smile. “I’ve worked in all the courts.”
After 23 years at 120 Schermerhorn St., Marrus said that moving to the new courthouse at 320 Jay St. has “transformed the nature of our work here.”
“The cases haven’t really changed. The volume has changed,” he said. “There were two murders a day in Brooklyn when I started.”
“Everyone wants to take credit for the decline in the crime rate – the police, the mayor, the D.A.’s office. The judges deserve a little credit too,” Marrus said with a smile.
Humble Beginnings
Marrus’ wife, Iris, is a teacher at Kingsborough and Lehman colleges and a singer who’s performed the national anthem for the Yankees, Mets, Knicks and Rangers. His daughter, Melissa, is a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York. His son, Justin, is a student at New England Law School in Boston.
Marrus grew up in Mt. Vernon with his father, who worked at a shoe store, and his mother, a homemaker. After his father passed away when Marrus was 12, the family moved to Brooklyn – where Marrus has lived ever since.
He attended Brooklyn College, where he was the captain of the debate team, and went on to get a full scholarship to George Washington University Law School. Marrus, who served in the D.C. National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve, became the first lawyer in his family.
“I first thought about it when I was in junior high school,” Marrus recalled, saying that he started learning about the law through classes and a career-book project. “Law seemed like a natural choice for me.”
In 1983, he was appointed a Criminal Court judge by Mayor Ed Koch, “which was somewhat revolutionary,” he said. “[Koch] looked for the best people, regardless of party.”
Three years later, he was designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice. Since then, for over 20 years, Marrus has worked with the same court attorney, Marvin Scharf, and the same court clerk, John Eldert, in the same part, Part 35.
“We have a team,” Marrus said. “My part operates like clockwork.”
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009
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