66 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2020
ARTHUR SPATT
PROLIFIC FEDERAL JUDGE
FOR SALE
PINELAWN CEMETERY
THREE BURIAL PLOTS
Photo of actual plots taken from across the road.
Plots are located on the left of the trees.
This is a prime location along the path.
Block 9, Section 31, Plot F.
The three adjacent double plots are
$6,000 each (negotiable) and may be
purchased separately.
If interested please call the family directly
at (478) 297-6531
U.S. District Judge Arthur Spatt,
who presided over some of the most
high-profile cases in recent memory at
Central Islip federal court, died June 12.
He was 94.
The World War II veteran spent a
lifetime serving New York, often describing
himself as “just a lucky kid
from Brooklyn,” according to Richard
P. Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of New York.
“He had the best reputation for his
capacity to do an enormous amount
of work, and to churn out a huge number
of cases,” said longtime colleague
former U.S. District Court Judge Jack
Weinstein, a fellow World War II
veteran who retired in February as
the then-longest serving federal judge
in the nation. “He probably was the
hardest-working district judge in the
country, working seven days a week.”
After surviving kamikaze attacks as a
navigation petty officer in the U.S. Navy,
Spatt went on to receive a law degree
from Brooklyn Law School on the GI
Bill. He worked in private practice as
well as various New York State courts
before his appointment to the federal
bench in 1989 by President George H.W.
Bush.
Spatt’s devotion to his life’s work as a
judge was exemplified by a final, uncompleted
wish. According to an email
sent by Donoghue to his staff, Spatt had
once shared his “hope to be found in my
chambers, quietly passed away with the
last decision on my desk and signed.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic,
however, Spatt’s last days as a judge
were spent telecommuting from his
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Commack home. Despite a 6-year battle
with blood cancer, the senior judge
never took less than a full caseload,
though he had not been required to do
so since 2004.
Of the many cases spanning his 31-year
career as federal judge, Spatt was
known for a nearly $1 million ruling
against a Muttontown couple who mistreated
two Indonesian housekeepers
as slaves. He also presided over the trial
of former Suffolk County Conservative
Party Chairman Ed Walsh, who was
convicted of corruption.
That Spatt counted among his heroes
President Abraham Lincoln, baseball
player Lou Gehrig, and trial lawyer
Henry Miller of White Plains, who died
in April of the coronavirus, indicates
the range with which Spatt engaged
with his community and his country.
“He was a light to all those involved in
federal practice,” Weinstein said.
Spatt was preceded in death by his wife
Dorothy, known as Dee, and is survived
by five daughters, 10 grandchildren,
and one great-grandchild.
OBITUARIES
U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt.
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