A Whistleblower's Lament

Judge Stuart Namm spent over 16 years on the bench in Suffolk County, New York, a Long Island suburb of New York City. Dubbed in the Hollywood Reporter as “the Serpico of Judges,” and by his detractors as the “Hanging Judge” and “Maximum Stu” for his willingness to frequently hand out the maximum 25 years to life sentence in intentional murder convictions. In 1985, he requested the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the county’s criminal justice system, believing there was rampant corruption and that cases were being manufactured to obtain convictions in major homicide trials. After a three year investigation, his “whistleblowing” resulted in numerous forced resignations and transfers in the police department, at the highest level of county government, and in the police laboratory. “A Whistleblower’s Lament” is Judge Stuart Namm’s compelling, personal account of his life in the law and politics, and the events that brought it to an end.

Stuart Namm of Hampstead, NC Dubbed the Serpico of Judges, Stuart Namm was the first recipient of the Justice Thurgood Marshall award, the David C. Michaels award, and a lifetime membership in the NAACP. Born in the Brooklyn tenements, he spent 16 months in Korea after graduating from CCNY. After a time in the FTC, he was elected judge in Suffolk County, NY, where he blew the whistle on Long Island's corrupt justice system. Denied renomination after 16 1/2 years on the bench, he left the law and retired to North Carolina.