Eastern District Judge David Trager, 73, dies

U.S. District Court Judge David Trager, a former chief prosecutor for the federal district that includes Long Island and a former dean of Brooklyn Law School, died Wednesday after a long bout with pancreatic cancer.

Trager, 73, was appointed to his judgeship in federal court in Brooklyn in 1994 by President Bill Clinton after serving as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District from 1974 to 1978. He headed Brooklyn Law School from 1983 to 1993.

"It's a profound loss to the district and the legal community here in New York," Eastern District Chief Judge Raymond Dearie said Thursday. "He's simply irreplaceable."

Trager assumed senior status as an Eastern District judge in 2006.

In the 1980s, as chairman of the State Commission of Investigation, Trager led a probe into allegations of illegal wiretapping, perjury and other acts of corruption by Suffolk County police and prosecutors. The two-year investigation resulted in a report condemning the law enforcement system then in place in Suffolk.

On the bench, Trager was best known for presiding over the trial of Lemrick Nelson, a black teenager accused in the 1991 racially charged stabbing of Hasidic student Yankel Rosenbaum in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. The arrest and the earlier accidental death of 7-year-old Gavin Cato touched off rioting.

A preliminary ruling that Nelson should be tried as a juvenile was the subject of political attacks and was eventually reversed.

Nelson's conviction on civil rights charges was reversed after an appeals court found that Trager had improperly manipulated the jury's composition while trying to fairly balance the number of Jewish and African-American jurors. Juror selection is supposed to be race-neutral.

At his retrial in 2002, with a different judge presiding, Nelson was acquitted of the most serious charges against him.

In another controversial case, Trager dismissed a civil suit brought by Maher Arar, a Canadian man the Bush administration mistakenly believed was involved in terrorism and sent to Syria, where he was held and tortured before being released. Trager ruled that the courts should not get involved.

Trager, a Republican, lived in Brooklyn.

He is survived by his wife, Roberta Weisbrod; daughters Naomi Trager of Boston and Mara Trager of Brooklyn; son Josiah Trager of Brooklyn; brother Arthur Trager; and two grandchildren.

His funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at the Kane Street Synagogue, 236 Kane St. in Brooklyn.