Charles S. Haight Jr.

For other people named Charles Haight, see Charles Haight (disambiguation).

Charles S. Haight Jr.
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office September 23, 1995
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office March 29, 1976 – September 23, 1995
Appointed by	Gerald Ford
Preceded by	Murray Gurfein
Succeeded by	Richard C. Casey
Personal details
Born	Charles Sherman Haight Jr. (1930-09-23) September 23, 1930 New York City, New York
Education	Yale University (B.A.) Yale Law School (LL.B.)

Charles Sherman Haight Jr. (born September 23, 1930) is an American lawyer and a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who has sat by designation in the District of Connecticut since he took senior status.

Education and career

Born in New York City, New York, Haight graduated from Yale University in 1952, where he was a member of Skull and Bones, with a Bachelor of Arts degree and entered Yale Law School the following year, graduating in 1955 with a Bachelor of Laws. Haight gained admission to the New York State bar and in the same year joined the Admiralty and Shipping Department of the Department of Justice as a district court trial attorney. Haight got this job on recommendation from his father Charles Sherman Haight Sr., who was heavily involved in shipping affairs. He left the United States Department of Justice in 1957 to join his father at Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens as an associate. Haight became a partner of the firm on the death of his father in 1968 and continued the practice of law with them until 1976.

Federal judicial service

Haight was nominated by President Gerald Ford on March 2, 1976, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Murray Gurfein. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 26, 1976, and received his commission on March 29, 1976. He assumed senior status on September 23, 1995. Since assuming senior status, he has sat by designation with the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Notable cases

Almost 40 years ago Haight put Mutulu Shakur in prison for his involvement in a 1981 bank robbery that led to three deaths. In 2020 he denied him parole despite Shakur's terminal cancer and impeccable record as a prisoner and mentor. At that point Haight told Shakur—the stepfather of rapper Tupak Shakur—that he was not sick enough. He told Shakur to come back when he was closer to death. Today Shakur weighs 125 pounds and needs round-the-clock care, while Haight is 90 years old and still serving as judge. It is not certain that Haight will free him at his upcoming hearing. ([1])

One of Haight's earliest decisions involved an act aimed at protection of the young. In May 1976, Haight passed a restraining order blocking a law that would disallow people under the age of twenty-one who are not living with a guardian from claiming benefits without first obtaining a potentially lengthy Family Court order.

Early the following year, Haight made an unusual provision, when he sentenced John G. Stoessinger, a United Nations official, to teaching prison inmates for failing to report fraud in excess of $260,000. Haight continued to preside over high-profile cases, including fraud relating to investors at Morgan & Stanley Co. and Lehman Brothers, Kuhn Loeb, Inc. in 1982, insider trading at Dean Witter Reynolds in 1984, police surveillance in 1989, and fraud relating to Contel in 1990.

In senior status, a case that spanned from 2002 to 2003 reduced restrictions in police surveillance, which he had imposed himself in 1985 under the Handschu guidelines, even when there is no evidence of criminal offence ([2]). Since March 2007, Haight has revisited his 2003 order, which was made in the antiterrorism climate after 9/11.

Other service

Haight was a director of the Kennedy Child Study Center; advisory trustee of the American-Scandinavian Foundation (Chairman, 1970–1976); manager of the Havens Fund; member of the Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce's editorial board; and a White House Fellow (1991–92).

Sources

• Charles Sherman Haight Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.