Main: law enforcement vehicles line the street after Stewart Rosenwasser took his own life (WABC). Right: Rosenwasser accepting an award (Orange County DA’s Office).
A retired New York state judge and prosecutor who resigned from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office just months ago stunningly took his own life before the feds could arrest him in a bribery probe that reportedly culminated in a serious indictment.
Stewart Rosenwasser was pronounced dead Tuesday after shooting and killing himself at his home in Campbell Hall, not far from Middletown, where the feds had shown up Tuesday with a warrant to arrest him for bribery, extortion, and several other crimes, local ABC affiliate WABC and multiple other reports have said.
The Times Union said that there was an exchange of gunfire between Rosenwasser and an FBI agent before the former judge died by suicide.
Biographical details for Rosenwasser note that he served as a judge for seven years from 1999 to 2006 and during that time was an acting justice for the New York State Supreme Court, the Empire State’s trial courts.
When he retired in 2006, the former judge, known as “Maximum Stew” for handing out stiff sentences to violent criminals, said one of his reasons for a new career path was not getting a raise on his salary of six-figure salary for seven years, the Times Herald-Record reported.
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From there, the bio said, Rosenwasser “worked as a referee for the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct” and then headed up the Orange County District Attorney’s Office’s “Conviction Integrity Unit.”
As recently as November 2023, Rosenwasser was recognized as “Arson Prosecutor of the Year,” but just several months later, in June, he resigned from his job in the DA’s office and retired “from the practice of law […] effective immediately,” News 12 reported of his resignation letter.
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And just days ago, it was reported that the DA’s office was reviewing the integrity of a handful of cases Rosenwasser oversaw as an assistant DA due to the allegations that he had accepted up to tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from former restaurateur Moutz “Marty” Soudani to investigate and prosecute that man’s sister Eman Soudani and his nephew, Eman’s son Martin Soudani, for a cryptocurrency scheme. Martin Soudani reportedly pleaded guilty to embezzling $1.6 million in 2023, but in light of the allegations against Rosenwasser, he has asked a court to throw out the conviction and simultaneously pursued a lawsuit.
NBC New York reported Tuesday after Rosenwasser’s death that he had been indicted for taking $63,000 in bribes, conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion and false statements.
FBI sources reportedly confirmed that there was an “agent-involved shooting,” in that a fed opened fire at Rosenwasser after seeing he was pointing a gun. Rather than being arrested, Rosenwasser allegedly turned the gun on himself while barricaded.
A report from 2006 said that Rosenwasser had four children, that two of them became attorneys, and that one of them, his son, worked as a prosecutor Orange County DA’s office as well.
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