E. Leo Milonas, Lion and defender of the New York Bench, dies at the age of 87

E. Leo Milonas, a determined lawyer who governed the New York courts for a quarter century and was known to rise to defend his fellow judges in public disputes, in one case sparring with Mayor Edward I. Koch, died on Jan. 2 at his home. house in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 87.

The cause was heart failure, his wife Helen said.

Throughout his career on the court – beginning with his appointment to the Criminal Court by Mayor John V. Lindsay in 1972 as New York City’s youngest judge, at age 36, until his retirement from a state court in 1998 profession – Judge Milonas has worked to make the legal system more efficient, transparent and representative.

As court administrator for New York City and then New York State, he strongly supported a system in which judges were appointed on the basis of merit, upon the recommendation of qualified screening committees, rather than being elected by popular vote.

But he was also pragmatic about judges being filled through elections, insisting that nominees by politicians be selected only from candidates vetted by independent panels.

Since 2019, Judge Milonas (pronounced muh-LONE-us) led the New York Commission on Judicial Nomination, through which the governor submits potential appointments to the state Court of Appeals, the highest court. Decades earlier, Judge Milonas’ name appeared on the list several times as vacancies arose, although he was never named to fill any of them.

Although he was highly regarded by colleagues, prosecutors and defense attorneys for his sense of humor and warmth, he could also be a fearless opponent.

Jonathan Lippman, a former chief judge of the state Court of Appeals, said in a telephone interview that Judge Milonas “did not hesitate to take on mayors and other government leaders who he believes are eroding the independence of the judiciary.”

An example of this occurred in 1981, when Judge Milonas, as deputy chief administrative judge of the New York City courts, a job he assumed in 1979, accused Mayor Koch of scapegoating the judiciary for the increase in crime and the lax enforcement of a strict new state weapon. law.

The mayor said prosecution of cases under the law, aimed at keeping unlicensed handguns out of the hands of convicted criminals, was moving too slowly through the courts. But Judge Milonas disputed that claim in a lengthy open letter to the mayor, in which he pointed out, among other things, that the judiciary was only one part of the criminal justice system.

“The courts are not the police or the prosecutors,” he told the mayor. “Judges don’t arrest and prosecute people.”

In 1981, as deputy chief administrator for the city’s courts, he publicly criticized a proposal by Chief Judge Lawrence H. Cooke, the state’s chief judicial officer, to randomly and temporarily rotate judges from lower courts to the state Supreme Court to ease the increasing caseload to help process. . It would be far better, Judge Milonas said, to choose and retain on the bench those who proved most effective.

His perseverance was a trait he honed on the streets of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, where he grew up.

He never used his first name, Elias, because, as he was quoted in The New York Times in 1972, “it’s a great Old Testament name, but it was a little refined for the kids I hung out with.”

“No one could call me Elias and live,” he said.

Elias Leo Milonas was born in Manhattan on October 23, 1936, the son of William and Catherine (Skoulikas) Milonas, Greek immigrants. His father, along with his older brother, had laid tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad before moving to New York City, where he opened a small restaurant in Harlem. Leo started working there on weekends at the age of 12. His mother was a housewife and worked part-time in the restaurant.

After graduating from George Washington High School in Washington Heights, he earned a bachelor’s degree from City College in three years in 1957 and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1960.

He grew up in a poor neighborhood and knew the only way to escape was to get a good education. “You were either going to be a doctor or a lawyer,” he told The Times in 1980. “I became a lawyer because it was faster and cheaper.”

The same year he received his law degree, he married Helen Gamanos, a psychotherapist whom he had known since fourth grade. In addition to her, he is survived by their daughters, Alexandra, a psychotherapist, and Olivia, a law professor; and two grandsons.

He was a lawyer when Mayor Lindsay appointed him as a judge in the Criminal Court in 1972. Less than a year later, he was promoted to supervising judge of the Bronx Criminal Court. In quick succession, he became a supervising judge of the Manhattan Criminal Court, an acting judge of the state Supreme Court and then a full justice of the Supreme Court, elected in 1978.

Judge Milonas was appointed to the Appellate Division in Manhattan in 1982. In 1993, Chief Justice Judith S. Kaye appointed him chief administrative judge for the state. In that position he played an important role in improving court facilities and computer systems and tightening the rules of conduct for lawyers. He also created a division of the state Supreme Court that would have jurisdiction over commercial matters.

He returned to the Appellate Division in 1993 and retired as a judge in 1998, returning to private practice at the Manhattan firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. He quit the company last year.

As president of the New York City Bar Association from 2002 to 2004, Judge Milonas warned of the threat to civil liberties posed by the nation’s efforts to combat terrorism, which, he said, could arrest and arrest anyone without recourse held.

And in 2004, he served on a court-appointed panel that said: An An additional $5.6 billion must be spent each year to provide the city’s schoolchildren with the opportunity for a solid primary education guaranteed to them by the state Constitution.

He often said that the government’s greatest power was to hurt people unjustly. He therefore expressed concern about a possible reduction in the rights of defendants.

As court administrator, he told The Times in 1980, it was his duty to safeguard judicial independence and the rights of defendants. In his moderate response to Mr. Koch about the mayor’s criticism of the judiciary, Judge Milonas wrote in his letter that punishment through incarceration alone would not reduce crime; rather, he said, the root causes of the crime also needed to be addressed.

“It is unfair and counterproductive to condemn the courts for contributing to crime by being too lenient, by criticizing judges who have taken unpopular actions, by attempting to pressure and intimidate the judiciary into a to become a partner in the prosecution function,” he wrote. it undermines the integrity and independence of a legal system that is the ultimate bulwark of free government.”