Queens District Attorney Richard Brown has died, Chief Assistant District Attorney John Ryan said Saturday.

 

 

Brown announced he was not running for re-election earlier this year due to health issues. He was set to step down from the post on June 1.

He was affectionately called "Judge," a reference to the 16 years he spent on the bench, but for more than a quarter century, Brown was the Queens district attorney, a job he vowed to never to leave, even as he battled Parkinson's Disease.

"I enjoy doing what I'm doing and I want to continue doing it as long as I can physically do it," he said.

Brown was appointed to the seat by Governor Mario Cuomo in June 1991. He was elected to a full term that November. With the backing of the Queens Democratic machine, he never faced a major opponent, winning re-election six times.

Brown became a judge in 1973. Four years later, he arraigned the "Son of Sam," serial killer David Berkowitz, in Brooklyn criminal court.

As Queens district attorney, he was no stranger to the press, with his elaborate news conferences and crime scene visits.

The "Wendy's Massacre" was a haunting moment in his career. Seven restaurant employees were shot execution style by a former employee and an accomplice. Five died.

"I will never forget being in that basement refrigerator in the middle of the night," he said in 2007.

Brown was considered a tough and sucessful DA, but in 2008, he faced a rare moment of criticism when three detectives were acquitted in the shooting death of Sean Bell on Bell's wedding day.

In recent years, there was talk Brown had become less and less involved in the day-to-day operation of his office because of poor health, including a heart valve procedure, something he always denied.

"I have a constant knowledge of what's going on," he said.

Crime spiked and then plunged under Brown, as it did across the city. He was known to push for alternative sentencing to give young offenders who deserved it a second chance. He joined with three other DAs in dismissing nearly 650,000 old arrest warrants for minor infractions. His Say No to Violence initiative had a huge impact on young students in Far Rockaway, Queens.

"We're very proud of the fact that we turned so many lives around," he said.

Brown had hoped he would become the city's longest serving district attorney, but he fell short of the 34 years his friend Robert Morgehthau served as the DA of Manhattan.

Richard Brown was 86 years old.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at 11:30 a.m. at The Reform Temple of Forest Hills, 71-11 112th Street in Forest Hills, Queens.