Milton Pollack, judge in corporate corruption cases

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
08-17-2004

Milton Pollack, judge in corporate corruption cases
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Date: 08-17-2004, Tuesday
Section: LOCAL
Edtion: All Editions.=.Two Star B. Two Star P. One Star B
Biographical: MILTON POLLACK

NEW YORK - Milton Pollack, who was appointed a federal judge by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and oversaw many notable corporate corruption cases, has died in Manhattan. He was 97.

He died Friday at New York Weill Cornell Center of complications from surgery, his family said.

One of Mr. Pollack's most prominent cases was that involving Drexel Burnham Lambert's bankruptcy, which encompassed claims against the company itself and several executives, including Michael Milken. Mr Pollack ultimately approved a settlement of more than $1 billion in that case; the amount was later reduced.

In 1975, he sentenced Jane Alpert, a member of the Weather Underground activist group, to 27 months in prison for conspiring to bomb a federal building in New York during the Vietnam War and then jumping bail.

He was still working as late as last year, when in October he tossed out eight lawsuits that sought to hold Merrill Lynch & Co. responsible for investor losses during the Internet stock bubble.

Mr. Pollack grew up in Brooklyn and graduated from Columbia University's law school in 1929. He worked as a lawyer in private practice for 23 years before becoming a judge.

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Keywords: JUDGE

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