Michael F. Armstrong

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Michael F. Armstrong
Born
Michael Francis Armstrong

(1932-12-14)December 14, 1932
Manhattan, New York, US
DiedOctober 17, 2019(2019-10-17) (aged 86)
Manhattan, New York, US
NationalityAmerican
OccupationLawyer

Michael Francis Armstrong (December 14, 1932 – October 17, 2019) was an American lawyer, based in New York City.[1]

In 1991, The New York Times described him as "the consummate New York lawyer."[2]

Biography[edit]

Armstrong graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1954, then served in the US Air Force, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1960.[1]

He first worked as a lawyer as an associate at Cahill Gordon.[1] Armstrong was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1962 to 1967, after which he returned to Cahill Gordon as a partner in 1968.[1]

From 1970 to 1972, he was chief counsel to the Knapp Commission on New York City police corruption.[1][2][3] In 1973 he was the interim Queens District Attorney.[1][4]

Armstrong represented the children of Martha "Sunny" von Bulow in a civil suit against her husband, Claus von Bülow, over her estate.[2] The suit settled when Claus von Bülow in 1987 agreed to give up his claim to the estate.[2][5]

Later, he was chairman of the review panel on the Central Park jogger case.[6] In 2002 New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly commissioned a panel of three lawyers, including him, to review the case.[7] The panel issued a 43-page report in January 2003.[7] The panel disputed the claim of one man, Matias Reyes, that he alone had raped the jogger.[7] The report concluded that the five men who had been convicted, but whose convictions had been vacated, had "most likely" participated in the beating and rape of the jogger, and that the "most likely scenario" was that "both the defendants and Reyes assaulted her, perhaps successively."[7][8]

In June 2005 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Armstrong chairman of The Commission to Combat Police Corruption.[9][10] The panel was formed in 1995, and conducts audits and studies on the department's anticorruption strategies.[10][11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Justice in New York: An Oral History". Archived from the original on September 7, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  2. ^ a b c d William Glaberson (January 19, 1991). "Feuding Lawyers Get a Hearing; Their Peers, an Earful", The New York Times
  3. ^ Geoffrey Gray (March 28, 2005). "Crooked Cop, Now Jailhouse Lawyer, Seeks Parole at 74". New York Sun.
  4. ^ Frank Lynn (July 21, 1983). "Man in the News; Nominee for U.S. Judge: John Fontaine Keenan", The New York Times
  5. ^ Hevesi, Dennis (December 24, 1987). "Von Bulow Says He Will Drop Claim to Money". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Lambert, Bruce (January 8, 2007). "Ex-Prosecutors Urge New Trial for Man Convicted of 2 Murders". The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b c d Robert D. McFadden (January 28, 2003). "Boys' Guilt Likely in Rape of Jogger, Police Panel Says", The New York Times
  8. ^ Edward Conlon (October 19, 2014). "The Myth of the Central Park Five". The Daily Beast.
  9. ^ Jaime Adame (August 23, 2005). "Campaign 2005: Crime Declines, Public Safety Worries Continue". Gotham Gazette.
  10. ^ a b Sue Titus Reid (2011). Criminal Justice Essentials. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118088661.
  11. ^ William K. Rashbaum; John Sullivan (June 2, 2005). "New York: Manhattan: New Anticorruption Chief", The New York Times
Legal offices
Preceded by District Attorney of Queens County
(interim)

1973
Succeeded by