A former prosecutor and retired judge killed himself on Tuesday as the FBI arrived at his home in New York to arrest him.
Stewart Rosenwasser, 72, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a federal raid on his $430,000 home in Campbell Hall.
The shamed judge has been embroiled in a federal bribery scandal involving a previous case that he oversaw as a public prosecutor.
After authorities arrived at his address to arrest him on Tuesday morning, Rosenwasser allegedly opened fire on federal agents before taking his own life.
Federal prosecutors allege that Rosenwasser had been taking bribes worth $63,000 while working inside the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The bureau said: ‘The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting that occurred earlier this morning in Campbell Hall, NY. The FBI takes all shooting incidents involving our agents seriously.
‘In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division. As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide.’
According to an indictment unsealed just hours after his death, he had taken money from a Mout’z ‘Marty’ Soudani, who’s nephew Martin Soudani was last year jailed for stealing $1.9 million from his uncle.
Mout’z had accused both his sister, Eman, and his nephew of stealing the money from him October 2022.
The charges against Eman were dropped, and Martin later pleaded guilty to taking $1.6 million from his uncle and served two months in behind bars.
The entire case against the two was prosecuted after Mout’z paid Rosenwasser to go after his own family, according to federal investigators.
Martin’s lawyers are seeking post-conviction relief by challenging the legality of the conviction and requesting the judgement be vacated.
Prosecutors claim that Rosenwasser accepted even more than was alleged in the lawsuit, a total of $63,000.
Rosenwasser and Soudani were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, and honest services wire fraud.
Rosenwasser was also charged with extortion and making false statements to the FBI after he was interviewed in June.
Three days after his interview he abruptly quit his job at the District Attorney’s Office where he had worked for five years.
Rosenwasser had been a former county court judge and acting New York state Supreme Court Justice.
Orange County DA David Hoovler said: ‘It’s truly heartbreaking that it ended this way. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family.’
According to a biography, Rosenwasser had served as a judge for seven years from 1999 to 2006.
When he retired in 2006, he told the Times Herald-Record that one of the reasons he was standing down was because he wasn’t getting a raise on his six-figure salary.
After last week’s revelations, News12 reported that the integrity of some of the cases he oversaw as assistant DA would be reviewed.
In November of last year he was awarded ‘Arson Prosecutor of the Year’ and had previously headed up the Orange County DA’s ‘Conviction Integrity Unit’.