At 83, Judge Frederic Block sits as a senior jurist in Brooklyn’s federal court and because of his seniority has the right to take it easy.
By law and regulation, senior federal judges — those whose age and years of service add up to 80 — can work while considered semiretired, assuming they are at least 65.
They draw a full pension and need only work judicial duties and cases for three months out of the year. The rest of the time is theirs.
It can be an quiet life.
So why did the octogenarian Block, who practiced law in Patchogue, Smithtown and Port Jefferson before ascending to the bench in 1994, plunge into the problematic and often frustrating world of fiction writing after a successful stab at nonfiction?
Block, author of the critically acclaimed book, “Disrobed: An Inside Look at the Life and Work of a Federal Trial Judge,” said writing gave him the itch to tell more stories.
“That animated me to do it,” Block said about penning the 2012 non-fiction book — a glimpse into the cloistered but hectic world of a big city federal judge. “There are some creative juices left in my bones.”
The result is “Race To Judgement”, a novel about fictional black Brooklyn attorney Ken Williams. Block’s protagonist is modeled on the late Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, who died in 2016 at 50 of cancer and was Block’s friend.
Also fueling the book’s plot line were strands of official-misconduct cases Block saw in real life. Among them was the case of Jabbar Collins, a Brooklyn man freed in 2010 after spending 15 years in prison following his wrongful conviction for the killing of a rabbi. The Collins case tarnished the tenure of former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes.
Block said some judges ascribe to the notion that those on the bench should only speak to the public through their opinions and otherwise be “as quiet as a mouse.”
Another school of thought, typified by Judge Edward Posner of Chicago, a prolific writer: Jurists should talk to the public as much as they can through the written word.
In Block’s case, he saw nothing wrong with sharing his judicial recollections, although fictional, even if what he wrote might anger people.
Some of the characters in “Race To Judgement” were inspired by Hynes, who lost his bid for reelection to Thompson, and former NYPD detective Louis Scarcella, the target of police misconduct allegations that he has denied. In a prologue, Block lists the various real-life trials and events that inspired the plot line.
Ron Kuby, an attorney mentioned in the new novel and the writer of a cover blurb for it, said Block isn’t afraid to speak his mind.
“Unlike most federal judges, he is well aware he has lifetime tenure,” Kuby said, “and it makes him bolder than most of his colleagues.”
Block’s willingness to speak his mind from the bench has led to criticism that he’s been a bit too loose with his remarks.
In 2006, Block earned the sobriquet “Judge Blockhead” from the Daily News after he criticized prosecutors for what he believed was a waste of time and money in bringing a federal death penalty case against a drug dealer. The jury decided to give the defendant life in prison instead but that didn’t spare Block getting lambasted for his remarks.
In “Race to Judgment”, Block resurrects the “Blockhead” headline and uses it to describe a fictional state court judge named Black, the fictional object of the newspaper’s scorn.
Even with his late-in-life work as an author, statistics show Block still handles an above average criminal caseload. He and his senior colleagues as a group work on nearly 40 percent of the Eastern District’s caseload. So, how does Block find the time to write?
“Most of it comes at three o’clock in the morning,” he answered. “When you don’t watch TV for three hours a night that gives you time to write things. If you are really motivated and turned on and excited, it will happen.”
Not even a recent vacation to the sweltering, picturesque Greek isle of Kea, could keep Block from thinking about the story he itched to tell. He said rather than staying indoors and sipping martinis, he started outlining his new novel.
Father Time was also prodding him.
“At the age of 83, you write faster,” Block said with a chuckle.