He’s driven a taxi cab, played in a band and protested the Vietnam War. As a New York City judge, Arthur Engoron has resolved hundreds of disputes, deciding everything from zoning and free speech issues to a custody fight over a dog named “Stevie.”
Now, in the twilight of a distinguished two-decade career on the bench, the erudite, Ivy League-educated judge is presiding over his biggest case yet: deciding the future of former President Donald Trump’s real estate empire…
Engoron, a few years younger than Trump at 74, spent his early years in Queens, about 3.8 miles (6 kilometers) east of the former president’s childhood home.
Engoron’s family later moved to East Williston on Long Island, where he ran track and wrote for the student newspaper at The Wheatley School, a public high school in Old Westbury, New York, and graduated in 1967.
Engoron got his law degree from New York University in 1979. He’s worked as a litigator and was a law clerk for 11 years for a judge in the same court where he now sits. Engoron also taught piano and drums and played keyboard in what he describes as a “moderately successful” bar band. He’s been married three times and has four children, according to his Wheatley alumni page biography.
Engoron frequently peppers his rulings with song lyrics, movie quotes and the occasional New York City history lesson. He’s quoted Bob Dylan and Shakespeare and movies like “City Slickers” and the Marx Brothers classic “Duck Soup.” He signs them with a logo of sorts, his initials, AE, drawn together in a circle.
Engoron has been involved in Trump-related cases since 2020, when he was assigned to intervene in quarrels among Trump’s lawyers and James’ office over demands for evidence and the direction of her investigation.
The judge deciding the future of former President Donald Trump’s real estate empire has driven a taxi cab, played in a band and protested the Vietnam War.
apnews.com
