Judging Leslie Crocker Snyder
One Thursday morning, I got off the subway in midtown and faced a sky-high office building, where I was interviewing Leslie Crocker Snyder,
a lawyer and a judge who challenged Robert Morgenthau in the Manhattan District Attorney election of 2005. Tight security and marble elevators reminded me that I was going to see one of the most versatile and accomplished lawyers in the city, but Snyder turned out to be a very down-to-earth woman with a great sense of humor. I talked to her about breaking ground for women in criminal law, facing death threats, and dealing with the mob—not only in the movies.
Did you always want to go into law?
I wanted to be a criminal lawyer since I was about five. There was a radio program on Saturday nights I listened to after I was supposed to be in bed. It listed the FBI’s Most Wanted. I used to take notes, and make my brother come with me and look for the most wanted criminals. We were very young and it was very silly, but I liked it from the very beginning.
You ended up working as a prosecutor and a judge. Why?
Well part of it is just fate. I applied for a number of jobs because I was interested in either side. I got turned down for some because I was a woman. When I got out of law school I wanted to become an assistant to the United States Attorney in the southern district. I went there, I asked for the application for the criminal division and they said, “Don’t be ridiculous, we don’t take women.” So I then went down to Frank Hogan’s office, a very famous district attorney of Manhattan, and was offered a job.
What were the working conditions in such a male-dominated environment?
Most of my contemporaries were fine with my being a woman. The problem was that a lot of the older men didn’t think women should be doing the nasty cases. So in those days you really had to spend a lot more time proving yourself.
How did you manage to convince Frank Hogan?
Well, after I begged him numerous times, he told me he’d consider letting me go there if I brought a letter of permission from my husband. So I did bring a letter, and I was the first woman in the homicide bureau to try murder and rape cases.
Was trying organized crime different from what you’d dealt with before?
Those cases were especially horrible. The Wild Cowboys case involved 48 defendants who were charged with taking over blocks of buildings and just killing people, selling drugs all over, taking people hostage, enslaving children… I could go on and on. Such cases were usually very long trials, about 10 months each, during which my whole family and I received death threats. For years and years, until fairly recently, we were under police protection, the kids had to go to school with two cops each—it was quite an experience. But my family was very supportive. I felt that you can’t let the bad guys win, and they felt the same.
But death threats… It must have been really scary and tough sometimes.
Yes, there were some horrible experiences. Once, I tried a massive stock fraud case, and the head of the group hired someone to kill me. I’ll show you something. [To my dismay, Mrs. Snyder shows me the front page of the New York Post with the headline “KILL THE JUDGE” and a huge photo of her face.] It is not exactly the kind of memorabilia you want.
How do you look back on the process of running for DA?
I think I ran a good clean campaign, and I’m pleased with that. Of course I’m disappointed I didn’t win, but I knew it was a very difficult race because I was up against an institution [Mr. Morgenthau has been Manhattan’s DA for 30 years now.] I feel strongly that there should be a new DA, and I’m going to run again.
On a lighter note—do you have a favorite mob movie?
My husband and I go to all those movies. We’ve just seen The Departed, which I thought was excellent. I also liked The Godfather and all of those, but I couldn’t rank them. I have a favorite mob story of my career, though.
I’m all ears.
A major mob figure in the “Garbage Case” I tried was a real gentleman, we used to call him the “gentleman gangster” because he was always polite, well spoken, not a wise guy or whatever. So after the trial he was out because he had to have a major eye surgery—he was not a flight risk. So my husband and I and two friends went to a restaurant on the Upper East Side and as we walk in, there he is! I was a little startled, but I wasn’t going to leave because that would have shown that I was afraid of him, which I wasn’t, but still I wasn’t really looking forward to being in the same restaurant. So I wasn’t going to say anything, but he comes over to me and he kisses me on the cheek. So I whisper to my husband, “Is that the kiss of death?” And then he says to my husband, “Your wife is my favorite judge.” So I said to my husband, “Well, he’s my favorite gangster.” But I guess he doesn’t really think of himself as a gangster. So we get seated and then he actually brings his wife over to meet me, but she’s glaring at me like she wants to kill me so I don’t know what to say. So finally I said, “It’s nice to meet you, your husband is a nice man,” just because I’m polite, and she says “I know he’s a nice man!” and she leaves! So at that point, we were not feeling very hungry, and we didn’t get very good service. Everybody waited on him, not on us.
Is there anything you could tell Columbia graduates who are considering going to law school?
The number one question is: do you really want to go to law school? I think it’s a mistake to go to law school just because you don’t know what to do with yourself, which I have seen happen, and that’s disappointing.