King of the Mountain: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Chief Judge Sol Wachtler - Hardcover

Caher, John M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573921971 ISBN 13: 9781573921978

Publisher: Prometheus, 1998

Synopsis

Once known for his historically significant landmark decisions on civil rights, free speech, the right-to-die, and for banning discrimination, New York Chief Judge Sol Wachtler rose to the top of his profession and was a high roller in state politics a potential candidate for governor. But in a matter of months, this rising judicial star exploded in a whirlwind of scandal over an affair with socialite Joy Silverman.

Award-winning Albany Times Union legal reporter John M. Caher has followed Wachtler's career, the stalking scandal that led to his ignominious fall, and the former judge's efforts to redeem his reputation. Despite the media's feeding frenzy over Wachtler's infamous arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment, the judge's amazing life deserves a biography. With Wachtler's full cooperation, Caher offers an objective look at the life and mind of the most powerful judge on the New York State bench. Without excuses he closely examines and explains the dark side that doomed Wachtler, toppling him from the mountain where he had once reigned supreme.

King of the Mountain is a forthright picture of Wachtler's persecuted boyhood in North Carolina, his early years in law, his rise to the top of New York political circles, and his appointment as chief judge by Gov. Mario Cuomo. Caher chronicles Wachtler's impact on the national scene, through his judicial and administrative decisions, and his role in shaping the court and influencing other judges to follow his ground-breaking lead, the steamy affair, and his efforts to rise from the ashes of disgrace and shame.

About this title

About the Author

John M. Caher (Troy, NY), the state editor of the Albany Times Union, has received four John Peter Zenger Awards from the New York State Bar Association, a Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, and the Eagle Award from the Hearst Corporation.

Reviews

An oddity of the New York State judicial system is that the Supreme Court is not the highest-ranking body but is subordinate to the Court of Appeals, whose chief judge is the head of the state system. Wachtler was appointed to this position by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1985, after 12 years as a justice on the court, preceded by four years on the Supreme Court, to which he had been named by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. A liberal Republican particularly supportive of First Amendment rights and in battling prejudice against women and minorities, Wachtler combined devotion to principle with pragmatism to become a popular and respected jurist. While on the bench, Wachtler began an affair with a socialite, Joy Silverman (he was executor of her father's will); when she rejected him and took another lover, he harassed and otherwise threatened her via telephone and the U.S. mail, even intimating he might kidnap her daughter. Brought to trial, he pleaded guilty to the kidnap threat and served 11 months in prison. On his release in 1994, he published a prison memoir, After the Madness, and he is now teaching at Truro Law School in upstate New York. Caher, an editor of the Albany [N.Y.] Times Union, presents Wachtler as both an individual and a judge. His biography is eminently fair and occasionally witty. Photos not seen by PW.-- Times Union, presents Wachtler as both an individual and a judge. His biography is eminently fair and occasionally witty. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Sol Wachtler seemed to have it all. New York State's chief judge of the Court of Appeals, Wachtler possessed a brilliant legal mind and was charismatic and equally compassionate. But by 1991, Wachtler was out of control. Dumped by New York socialite Joy Silverman after a long affair, Wachtler stalked his ex-lover. Hang-up phone calls escalated to written threats against Silverman and her daughter, culminating in an attempt to extort money out of her. Meanwhile, Wachtler assumed a number of increasingly bizarre alter egos and dressed in disguises. Wachtler was eventually caught and sentenced, served time, and later successfully rehabilitated himself. Caher, state editor for the Albany Times Union, expertly covers Wachtler's life, and though he documents outside influences that aided this man's fall--overuse of prescription drugs, for example--his larger point is always clear: Wachtler willingly gave himself over to those demons that haunt us all. Brian McCombie

Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1573921971
• ISBN 13: 9781573921978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296