Judge Judith S. Kaye’s lasting legacy in Red Hook, by Kimberly Gail Price

In the early 1990s, Red Hook was on the edge of a dangerous precipice. Riddled with crime, drugs and gangs, several important influences were taking shape and coming together to alter the course of the neighborhood’s future.

These quiet movements were suddenly awakened by the unfortunate murder of PS 15’s beloved principle, Patrick F. Daly. In his final moments and the strange minutes that followed, these whispering voices erupted into thunderous shouting.

One of those voices was Chief Justice of the New York State Appellate Court, Judge Judith S. Kaye.

She was the first woman appointed to the state’s highest court. But making history as a woman was not what defined her. She famously once said, “I take my gender with me everywhere I go,” although this was only a small part of her legacy. The Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC) is another.

In the late 80s and early 90s, Red Hook was not the only neighborhood experiencing high crime levels. In Midtown – most notably the Theater District – tourists and residents avoided the area. Theaters were darkened. More than 600,000 people had fled the city. Times Square was not getting the foot traffic that was the lifeline of the area.

Herb Sturz, who later became Deputy Mayor under Mayor Ed Koch, wanted to make Midtown a jewel again. Instead of sending petty criminals to jail for mere days at a time, he drafted an idea to do something different to improve public safety.

He asked Gerry Schoenfeld, Broadway producer and Chairman for the Shubert Organization, for a theater in exchange for a court. The producer gave him Long Acre Theater on 54th Street.

Sturz then had to get NYS’ highest court on board. Judge Kaye not only approved the idea, she showed up that evening in jeans and helped whitewash the walls of what would later become the city’s first Community Court.

Judge Kaye was determined to have the new Midtown Community Court be a place where people were treated with dignity and respect, no matter the crimes they were charged with. Holding cells had no bars but were made of glass. When opponents scoffed at the idea, she refused to concede. The night before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, she took a hammer herself and tried to shatter the glass; it held. “She had a willingness to get her hands dirty” with the “gritty details,” Greg Berman, Director of the Center for Court Innovation (CCI), said. CCI heads the multiple Community Justice Centers throughout the city. She was “not someone who just ordered edicts to from the bench,” he said, but instead took a hands-on “muscular approach” and “aggressively advocated for change.”

“It’s better to deal with the underlying problem,” the judge once said. Judge Kaye was very proud of the community court’s success, but also the approval rating. The overall court system held a 12% approval rating; Community Courts helped them reached a 78% approval rating.

The new and innovative court was reviewed favorably, as crime rates declined. People were linked to sorely needed resources. After achieving real results in Midtown, Red Hook caught the Chief Justice’s attention.

After Principal Daly’s death, former District Attorney Joe Hynes started advocating for a second community court – in Red Hook. The first step was getting to know the neighborhood through door-to-door surveys, crime data, focus groups, and local residents’ opinions.

“In 1994, when we started, the idea that there would be an IKEA or Fairway here” was unthinkable, Berman explained. The resources in the neighborhood included one drug prevention place, Hope & Anchor, and a methadone clinic.

Judge Kaye needed the cooperation of both the city and the state. The city is responsible for building and maintaining the building. The state runs the court. She went to Mayor Rudolph Guliani and told him to make it happen. “She put the full weight of her office behind it,” Berman said. “She convinced him, and it happened. Red Hook could not have happened without her blessing, but also her support.”

There was so much skepticism about a court being popped into Red Hook,” said Viviana Gordon, Deputy Director of the Red Hook Justice Center. But Judge Kaye was determined not only to open the center, but also that it would be effective for the Red Hook community.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center was created to be a “problem solving place,” by “smushing together a courthouse and community resources,” Berman explained.

On June 1, 2001 at the RHCJC’s ribbon cutting ceremony, she said, “This integrated approach to justice – which metes out meaningful punishment for offenders, and at the same time, targets peripheral issues associated with crime – promises a safer, stringer neighborhood for all the residents in Red Hook.”

Presiding Judge over RHCJC, Alex Calabrese said the court was formed to address specific concerns in a specific area. All of the canvassing done before the court’s opening helped shape what services the court would offer.

Calabrese said, “Downtown, I only had two tools: jail and out of jail,” referring to his previous courtroom. “Here I have a whole clinic. RHCJC was the first court in the nation to offer a family, housing and criminal court all in the same place, as well as resources to keep first time offenders from coming back to his bench.

In addition to the monumental role she played in transforming Red Hook, she was deeply passionate about kids in the system. She was concerned with domestic violence and changing the culture that surrounded it. “There was no part of justice she didn’t touch,” Berman said.

Cases in the system that weren’t huge in the system, but the vast majority are dealing with serious issues in life. Their problems lead to criminal behavior. Judge Kaye believed that if these people were led to resources that could resolve their life-issues, they could become law-abiding citizens. She saw that there was a way for the courts to play a role in generating a positive response in people’s lives.

Judge Kaye started her career as a writer. Her first job as a reporter was as a society columnist for the now defunct Hudson Dispatch in Union City, New Jersey. Law later captured her attention, and she received her legal degree from NYU. As one of ten women of 290 students, she graduated 6th in her class, magna cum laude.

She became the first female partner at Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O’Donnell & Weyher.

When an opening occurred in the state’s Court of Appeals – New York’s highest court – Judge Kaye’s name was submitted. The Women’s Bar Association of New York did not recommend her, citing her lack of legal experience. When Governor Mario Cuomo nominated her anyway, the president of the bar group called his decision “unfortunate.”

Ten years later, she was exalted to the state’s highest judicial position, she not only became the only woman ever appointed to the court, but also the first woman to become its leader.

In February, 1993, NYT reported that the state’s nominating committee had presented Governor Cuomo with a list of seven nominees for Chief Justice. “With all respect to the six men on the list, they are no match for Judge Judith Kaye, the slate’s only woman,” they wrote. She “is a conscientious judge with an active interest in court administration as well as wisdom in deciding cases.”

On February 22, 1993, Mario Cuomo nominated Judge Kaye for the state’s highest judicial position. On March 17, 1993, she was unanimously confirmed as Chief Justice, and took her oath one week later. Upon her nomination, she told reporters, “I feel wonderful from the tip of my head to the tip of my toes!” and promised to devote herself to this new position “with every fiber of my being.”

In his blog, “Small Sanities,” Berman writes, “The Center for Court Innovation would not exist but for her support and advocacy…In the process, Kaye left a mark not just on New York, but on the world. She was willing to use her bully pulpit to advance a broad array of causes – reforming the jury process, rethinking the approach to domestic violence cases, and forging a new response to addiction.”

Berman also acknowledged Judge Kaye’s faith in placing him in his current position. “In blessing my appointment as director, she was placing a bet on a young and untested leader at a vulnerable moment in the agency’s history. Having made this decision, she was unfaltering in her support of me over the years.”

“She was a big hearted woman,” Berman said. She was higher in stature than he, but always took note of him as a person. She often asked about his family. She sent thank you notes. She “mastered social graces.”

Just after September 11, 2001, the New York Times ran profiles on victims killed in the attacks on the World Trade Centers. Three court officers were killed in the attacks. Mitchell Wallace of the State Supreme Court ran to help once he heard of the attacks. He was a trained EMT, and had previously saved Noreen McDonald’s – his fiancé – life when she was having a stroke. She told him to get away from the falling towers. He refused, telling her, “There are bodies everywhere. I have to help.”

Afterward, Judge Kaye went to Noreen and Michael’s apartment with a bag of jellybeans, and told Noreen, “We are going to sit here and eat jelly beans until he comes home.”

Berman described Judge Kaye as funny, but also “a bit of a trouble maker.” When she took over as Chief Judge of the NYS Appellate Court, she was the first judge to openly wear red shoes to the bench. She moved bottles of nail polish into her predecessor’s desk. One lawyer asked if he could address her as Thurgood Marshall had addressed Earl Warren. When she replied that nothing would please her more, he quipped back, “Okay, Chiefy Baby.”

“There have been few people in my personal and political and professional career who have had a profound impact on my own development and growth. Judge Kaye is one of them,” State Senator, Velmanette Montgomery wrote about the Chief Judge’s reappointment in 2007. “I’ve watched you with so much grace, skill and diplomacy, be able to reform our court system, which is akin to an ant turning an elephant.”

In 2008, Judge Kaye reached the mandatory retirement age and stepped down from her coveted position. Her legacy in Red Hook – and throughout the state – reigns as a symbol of her dedication to humanity and leading people to more dignified and prominent lives.

Judge Kaye devoted her life to the judicial process. She was well-received and respected by so many. Walter Mordaunt, ambassador the NYS Appellate Court from 1973-1990, brought Judge Kaye a sprig of roses from his front yard every year on the anniversary of her appointment to the appellate court. Every year, her added one more flower to the bouquet, marking her number of years on the bench. On September 12, 1991, the year following his retirement, he left flowers and a note that read, “Now Judge! I hope you did not think I’d forget.”

Chief Justice of the NYS Appellate Court from 1993-2008, Judge Judith Kaye died on January 6, 2016. Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg released a statement saying, “Judith Kaye was not only the longest serving Chief Judge in New York State history, and not only the first woman to hold the post; she was also one of the most respected judicial innovators of our time.”

Bloomberg also spoke at her funeral service in Lincoln Center in early January. He recalled being sworn in by Judge Kaye the morning after she had run a late night marathon. Bloomberg had expressed disbelief, so under her judicial robe, she showed him her runner’s number still pinned to her clothing.