Contact: Sunny Mindel/Matthew Higgins (212) 788-2958
In a City Hall ceremony today, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani administered the oath of office to four judges appointed to the Criminal Courts and one judge to the Family Courts.
"Serving as a judge is a great responsibility, as each one of you is now charged with ensuring the preservation of the rule of law in New York City," the Mayor said. "As a society, we deny ourselves the authority to enforce the law individually and instead cede that authority to judges collectively to hold citizens accountable for their civil and criminal wrongs. The public's continuing faith in our legal system is dependent upon judges who uphold themselves to the highest standard of honesty, integrity and professionalism. The five men and women who are before me today have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to those core values throughout their careers. I am confident as judges of the Criminal and Family Courts, they will dispense justice fairly and will prove themselves deserving of the trust the public has vested in them. I am proud to administer to them the oath of office."
The Mayor appointed the following four Criminal Court Judges today:
CRIMINAL COURTS
Danny K. Chun has been an Assistant District Attorney in New York County since graduating from law school in 1987. He has extensive trial experience having prosecuted hundreds of felony and misdemeanor cases and having tried over forty cases. He has been a member of both the Asian Gang Unit and the Sex Crimes Unit. In 1992, he was assigned to the Homicide Bureau where he tried murder cases. Currently, he is the Criminal Court Supervisor of Trial Bureau 70. Mr. Chun is a graduate of Fordham University Law School and Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the Asian American Bar Association of New York and the Korean American Bar Association of New York.
Joseph J. Dawson has been an Assistant District Attorney in New York County since 1987. After graduating from law school, Mr. Dawson clerked for the Honorable William J. Nelson, of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania for two years. He then returned to New York City to join Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft as a litigation associate from1984 through 1987. In the New York County District Attorney's Office, he served as Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Narcotics Unit from 1992 to 1993 and is currently working in the Appeals Bureau. He also has served as an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School since 1997. Mr. Dawson is a cum laude graduate of St. John's University School of Law and St. Johns University. He served as Publications Editor on St. Johns Law Review and has authored two articles.
Suzanne M. Mondo was appointed as a Civil Court Judge, assigned to Criminal Court, New York County, in May 1998. After graduating from law school, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County from 1982 to 1988. From 1988 to 1990, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime Strike Force, Eastern District of New York. She rejoined the District Attorney's Office in 1990 and held the position of Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney in the Special Prosecutions Bureau, where, among other things, she specialized in prosecuting homicide cases. She was in private practice from 1996 to 1998, primarily as a criminal defense attorney. Ms. Mondo is a graduate of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and New York University. She is a member of the National Organization for Women and co-authored Special Needs of Patients at the Drug Abuse Service, Bronx Psychiatric Center (1976).
Ann T. Pfau was appointed a Civil Court Judge, assigned to Criminal Court, New York County, in May 1998. She also serves as Deputy Chief Administrative Judge for Management Support. Prior to attending law school, Ms Pfau was a Special Education Teacher from 1970 to 1975. After graduating from law school, Ms. Pfau worked in New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration: Counsel's Office from 1984 to 1990. From 1990 to 1995, she served as Executive Assistant to Jonathan Lippman, then Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support and later Deputy Chief Administrative Judge. From 1996 to 1997, she was Special Counsel to the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts. For a brief period in 1998, she was the Deputy Chief Administrator for Management Support. Ms. Pauf is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School and served on a Law Review. She holds an MA in Education from Columbia University Teacher's College and a BA from Wells College. She is a member of the New York State Bar Association; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; the Brooklyn Bar Association; and the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association.
The Mayor appointed the following Family Court Judge today:
FAMILY COURT
Sidney Gribetz has been executive secretary on the Committee on Character and Fitness, Appellate Divisions, First Department since 1990. After law school, he worked as a law assistant in the Appellate Division First Department through 1983. In 1984, he joined Dornbush Mensch Mandelstam & Schaeffer in New York City, as a litigation associate, returning to public service in 1985 as law secretary to Justice Betty Weinberg Ellerin, Appellate Division, First Department. Mr. Gribetz is a graduate of Columbia College and Fordham University Law School. He is the author of The Strange Case of Woodrow Wilson's
Admission to the Bar, New York State Bar Journal (1997) and Legal Consultants in New York, the Bar Examiner (1998). In his spare time, Mr. Gribetz is a volunteer Dis Jockey on a Jazz program broadcast by Columbia University. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Committee on Legal Education.