News

DA Murphy comments on death of Judge Michael E. Sweeney

Release Date: January 1, 2007

Local judge leaves behind rich legacy
By PAUL POST , The Saratogian


In this 1984 file photo, Judge Michael Sweeney gets a congratulatory hug from his daughter, Maureen, after a portrait of him was unveiled in Ballston Spa.
SARATOGA SPRINGS - The Hon. Michael E. Sweeney is being remembered as a highly successful lawyer and a fair judge who enjoyed history, reading and the Spa City - Saratoga Race Course in particular.
The former state Supreme Court and Appellate Division justice died Saturday. He was 91.
Memorial services are scheduled for Wednesday at St. Clement's Church.
"I'll think he'll be remembered as a lawyer and a judge who very much loved the study of the law and the justice it could bring to people when it operated as intended," said Sweeney's son, Kevin, a history professor at UMass-Amherst. "He was regard¬ed as an extremely suc¬cessful trial lawyer and was considered a fair man when he was a judge.
"His colleagues on the bench and the bar respected him. They, like his family, very much appreciated him for his sense of humor."
In December 1984, Saratoga County Bar Association honored Sweeney with a highly-publicized testimonial attended by numerous dignitaries from throughout the area. The Saratogian paid tribute with a special four-page section.
"When I first started practicing 50 years ago, he was a very prominent lawyer in the community," said Saratoga Springs attorney Harry Snyder. "If I was working on a diffi¬cult case, he would give me some advice, what pitfalls to avoid. He was kind enough to do that, and you never forgot it. That's how he was with me.
"He never forgot his roots. He was gracious and kind to everyone. He's certainly going to be missed."
After 21 years with the law firm Leary & Fullerton (later Leary, Fullerton & Sweeney), he became Supreme Court judge in 1960 and served with the Appellate Division from 1969 to 1983.
"I tried a number of cases in front of him," Snyder said. "He didn't always decide my way, but I always respect¬ed his opinion when I got it. He was a fine trial attorney. He had a great courtroom presence. He knew how to get the right testimony from witnesses and was equally adept at cross-examina¬tions.
"That experience served him well as he presided over other cases."
Kevin Sweeney said his father's two great loves, in addition to the law, were Charles Dickens stories and the race track.
"He was fascinated by the whole range of society that Dickens wrote about," he said. "He could see that at the track. I don't think he ever bet a race in his life. He just loved the
whole pageantry, the ambiance, from trackside breakfasts to the backstretch."
In a 1983 interview, Judge Sweeney told about his first job at the track in 1924, when he was 9 years old.
"I was a water boy for three years," he said. "I operated a hand pump next to the jockey house."
Distributing cups of water to hot, thirsty patrons he collected tips in a tin plate sitting on top of a box.
"Depending on the crowd and the weather, on a Saturday I could make $30," he said.
Back then, that was more than a week's wages for many people including his father, a bricklayer.
"When I was a boy I didn't want to be Babe Ruth, I wanted to be Earl Sande," he said, refer¬ring to the Hall of Fame jockey.
But the young Sweeney grew to be too tall, leading to one of the most prestigious law careers Saratoga County has ever seen.
District Attorney James A. Murphy III considered Sweeney a close friend and mentor.
"He was my neighbor," he said. "My first memory of him is when I was 6 years old. He swore my father in as mayor of Sarato¬ga Springs. He was an amazingly brilliant lawyer. He was a true scholar of the law. He was always found in the library of his house."
Murphy said Sweeney was the one who first encouraged him to become an assistant district attorney, writing a letter of rec¬ommendation on his behalf to then-District Attorney David Wait.
"He was a good friend of my grandfather, (U.S. Rep.) Carleton King," Murphy said. "And he encouraged me to run for district attorney in 1997. He's always been someone I have taken advice and counsel from. He's one of those people we all can look up to for his intellect, his devotion to family, his kindness.
"It's a sad day for the Bar Association and the court sys¬tem."
Supreme Court Justice Stephen A. Ferradino said, "Judge Sweeney was the epito¬me of being a judge: knowledge¬able, intelligent and hard-work¬ing. He was extremely courteous to all who came before him seek¬ing justice."
He said that Sweeney handled matrimonial cases on Saturdays in his Saratoga Springs cham¬bers, because he felt that people seeking a divorce shouldn't lose a day's pay.
"We have lost a remarkable jurist, a good and decent man and a role model for all attorneys and judges to follow," Ferradino said.

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