Ex-judge turns energy to supreme mentoring Sunday, July 13th 2008, 10:47 PM Former New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Corriero admits the transition from the bench to civilian life takes some getting used to. An excerpt from a nydaily news article"My wife, Mary Ellen, and I were driving on the Long Island Expressway the other day, and I changed lanes without putting on my blinkers," Corriero said. "She said, 'Remember, you're not the law anymore.'" After 28 years on the bench, Corriero stepped down this year to take over as executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York on June 30, succeeding Alan Luks. BBBS was founded in 1904 by New York City Court Clerk Earnest Kent Coulter to pair young men and women with adult mentors as a way to keep the former out of trouble. Corriero, 65, has been involved with youths and the law for most of his career. Since 1992, he had presided over the Manhattan Criminal Court's Youth Part, a court within the adult system that dealt exclusively with 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds charged as adults. He also wrote the book, "Judging Children as Children: A Proposal for a Juvenile Justice System" (2007, Temple University Press). Corriero said he has been concerned about youth and crime since growing up an only child on Mott and White Sts., across from the Manhattan Detention Center - the legendary Tombs. He kept pictures of himself and his neighborhood buddies as teens on the walls of his chambers, and said he moved them to his BBBS office because he never wants to forget what it was like to be a teenager, and how easy it was to make careless decisions"I was fortunate that the repercussions from any careless decisions I would have made - and I have not admitted to making any - I have been able to survive and overcome," he added. Corriero credits his late parents, Frank and Antoinette, with drumming home the importance of education; the teachers at Transfiguration School on Mott St. with infusing him with a sense of restlessness to succeed, and legendary Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan, his boss for several years, with giving him "a special sensitivity to the issues of young people who got into trouble ... trying to help them avoid continued criminality."
Joe Bruno was a neighbor of Judge Corriero's at 134 White Street in Little Italy. As a kid Mike was known as Mikey Black
IN APARTMENT 22, WITH THE WINDOWS FACING BAXTER STREET LIVED MIKEY BLACK WITH HIS PARENTS. WE WERE BOTH ONLY CHILDREN. WE SHARED A FIRE ESCAPE. MANY TIMES MIKEY WOULD RETURN HOME WITHOUT HIS KEY TO HIS FRONT DOOR. HE WOULD THEN KNOCK ON MY DOOR AND ASK IF HE COULD USE THE FIRE ESCAPE TO GET INTO HIS APARTMENT. MIKEY BLACK WAS A SLIGHTLY WILD KID, WHO FINALLY SAW THE LIGHT IN HIS TEENAGE YEARS. HE WAS 4 OR 5 YEARS OLDER THAN ME. VERY QUIET. VERY INTENSE. HIS UNCLE MIKE WAS A BARBER WH LIVED ON THE SECOND FLOOR. WHAT I REMEMBER IS THAT HE WAS MOVIE STAR HANDSOME. ALL THE NEIGHBORHOOD GIRLS WENT CRAZY OVER MIKEY BLACK. SINCE 1992, MICHAEL CORREIRO HAS BEEN A NEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT JUDGE IN CHARGE OF THE JUVENILE COURTS.
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