Joseph E. Irenas, 75, senior U.S. judge
Joseph E. Irenas, 75, of Princeton, a senior U.S. judge for the district of New Jersey, died Friday, Oct. 16, at Cooper University Medical Center after a fall earlier in the week, the U.S. District Court for New Jersey has announced.
Joseph E. Irenas, 75, of Princeton, a senior U.S. judge for the district of New Jersey, died Friday, Oct. 16, at Cooper University Medical Center after a fall earlier in the week, the U.S. District Court for New Jersey has announced.
A colleague, District Judge Robert B. Kugler, said in an interview that Judge Irenas "was absolutely dedicated to the District Court of New Jersey."
"He worked as hard as anybody," Kugler said. "He loved his job. He loved coming to court."
Kugler said he had known the judge for 23 years, going onto the bench shortly after Judge Irenas joined it 1992.
Private services took place on Sunday, Oct. 18, in Princeton, Kugler said, but a public memorial service is planned "in two, three weeks."
The federal court announcement stated, "We have lost a brilliant, hardworking, and dedicated colleague.
"We especially admire his fortitude in recent years, overcoming physical impairments to serve the public and perform the duties he loved.
"We delighted in his sense of humor and mischief.
"Our greater court family and New Jersey's legal community were enriched by his many contributions to improving the law and assisting others with a generous spirit.
"We are devastated by his sudden passing."
During his career on the federal bench, Judge Irenas dealt with a number of high-profile cases.
In a 1997 ruling, he upheld the constitutionality of Megan's Law, which requires sex offenders to register with local police and community notification when they move into an area.
The ruling was the first opinion on the fate of people convicted after the law was enacted in 1994.
In 2004, he granted a new sentencing hearing to Robert O. Marshall, an insurance broker and United Way chairman from Toms River who was convicted of hiring a hit man to kill his wife at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway in 1984.
The case gained national notoriety and was the subject of a best-selling book and a TV mini-series.
Judge Irenas ruled that Marshall's lawyer at his 1986 trial was ineffective and the death sentence should be vacated.
Lloyd A. Freeman, a commercial litigator with the Haddonfield firm of Archer & Greiner, said in an interview that despite undergoing dialysis treatments several times a week, Judge Irenas arrived at the Camden courthouse from his Princeton home by 7 a.m. daily.
"He was very tough in the courtroom. He was a worker," Freeman said, noting that Judge Irenas continued to tackle complex cases despite his senior status, which entitled him to a lesser workload.
Freeman credited the judge with helping aspiring lawyers. "Judge Irenas was definitely a teacher. You learned from him. He was really, really good."
Karol Corbin Walker, president of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey, said he was "a brilliant jurist and a legal luminary."
Born in Newark, Judge Irenas graduated from Princeton University in 1962 and from Harvard Law School in 1965.
After clerking for New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Haydn Proctor, Judge Irenas was a member of the law firm McCarter & English from 1966 until he became a district judge in 1992, the court announcement stated.
He had been a senior district judge since 2002.
Judge Irenas was an adjunct professor at Rutgers in 1985-86 and since 1988, a judicial website stated.
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
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Inquirer staff writer Melanie Burney contributed to this article.