State Supreme Court Justice John L. Michalski died by suicide at his Amherst home Tuesday, several sources confirmed, 12 days after police executed a search warrant there.
Defense attorney Terrence M. Connors told The Buffalo News he received a call about the death late Tuesday morning and has been with the family at the Michalski home since.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Connors said. “He was such a good guy. This just didn’t have to happen.”
Connors said he was “sick” when he got the news, especially since he was with Michalski last week and the justice’s legal troubles seemed “manageable.”
“We had a good support system in place,” Connors said. “He was strong.”
Michalski, 61, was appointed in 2006 as a judge to fill a vacancy on the State Court of Claims and has been assigned to handle cases in State Supreme Court in Erie County ever since then.
Federal and state law enforcement officers, who have been investigating the judge for several years, raided his home on March 24. But no charges were filed against the judge or his wife.
