Retired US judge kills himself at home as FBI arrive to arrest him on corruption charges

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 - A retired New York judge and former prosecutor allegedly sh9t himself to death Tuesday morning, September 24, in a shootout with FBI agents trying to bust him on bribery and corruption charges.

Stewart Rosenwasser, who has been embroiled in a sordid federal bribery scandal, allegedly opened fire on the agents as they approached his Orange County home before his de@th by apparent suicide shortly after 9:30 am, law enforcement sources told The Post.

The FBI said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the incident at the Campbell Hall home, noting that it is being investigated by the Inspection Division, as is typically the case in agent-involved shootings.

“As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide,” the statement said.

The exchange of gunfire came one day after a federal grand jury voted to indict Rosenwasser for allegedly taking $63,000 in payoffs to rig a case on behalf of an old pal who claimed he was embezzled by relatives.

According to the 43-page indictment, Rosenwasser and millionaire businessman Mout’z Soudani conspired to build a case against Soudani’s sister and nephew and recoup the allegedly stolen cash.

“Any progress iam anxious thanks,” Soudani, who was also named in the indictment, texted Rosenwasser on Nov. 18, 2022, the document said.

“Waiting to talk to investigator,” the prosecutor allegedly replied. “Should know something today."

“Believe me. I’m putting maximum effort into this,” he added, according to the document. “We will utilize all available assets.”

Federal prosecutors said the two later tried to hide their illicit exchanges, with Rosenwasser allegedly texting his cohort on Jan. 23, 2023, “We must stop creating test [sic] messages. Period.”

The plot targeted Martin Soudani and his mother, Eman Soudani, who were allegedly involved in embezzling $1.6 million from Mout’z Soudani, a wealthy former restaurateur, the indictment said.

On March 8, 2023, Rosenwasser, as an Orange County assistant district attorney, charged Soudani’s kin with grand larceny for allegedly stealing the money from Mout’z Soudani and had arrest warrants issued.

When they appeared in court, defense lawyers asked that Rosenwasser recuse himself from prosecuting the case because he had represented Mout’z Soudani in the 1990s and that presented a conflict of interest.

Rosenwasser denied the claim and remained on the case.

But by June 2023 the DA’s office was getting wise and Rosewasser was replaced on the case, the indictment said. By March 2024, the case against Soudani’s sister had been dropped and his nephew agreed to plead guilty to grand larceny in the embezzlement case in exchange for a prison sentence of one to seven years.

Martin Soudani and Eman Soudani later filed a $22.5 million lawsuit claiming the cases against them were tainted.

In court filings in the lawsuit reviewed by the Times-Union, the alleged bribery scheme “may present the most blatant example of prosecutorial corruption and fraud in the annals of New York case law.”

Meanwhile, Rosenweiss resigned from the DAs office earlier this year as the investigation intensified, ending with this week’s indictment.

In an email to The Post on Tuesday, Rosenwasser’s son, Jason, asked for privacy for the family but cast doubt on reports that his dad committed suicide.

“The only thing I feel compelled to point out is that the local news headlines are reporting that my father fatally shot himself while also reporting in the same article that the FBI field office issued a statement calling it an agent-involved shooting,” he wrote.

The scandal, which saw the feds raid his home in July, forced him to resign from the DA’s Office.

The federal indictment, which names Rosenwasser and Mout’z Soudani, charges the two men with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, according to the Times-Union.

FBI agents arriving at Rosenwasser’s home on Route 416 reported that he was barricaded and that shots were fired, and requested a SWAT team from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Rosenwasser was later found dead.