Ridgewood Attorney Who Investigated White House Drug Scandal Dies

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and Ridgewood resident has died at age 83, his obit said.

James Lavin, who made himself known in the legal profession through litigation of high-profile cases, passed away on March 2, according to his obituary published in the New York Times.

After Lavin departed the Southern District after seven years to return to private practice in 1979, he was appointed to investigate White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, who was alleged to have used cocaine during a visit to the Studio 54 disco nightclub, the New York Times reported.

Lavin had headed the narcotics unit in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan until he resigned for private practice. He also helped write and argued briefs in the case against drug kingpin Herbert Sperling, who was found guilty of violating federal narcotics laws and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise involving hard narcotics. Sperling, the NYT reported, was accused of ordering the execution of fellow mobster Vincent Papa, the "mastermind" behind the French Connection narcotics theft.

Although many of Lavin's cases focused on mafia attempts at infiltration in the drug trade, it was the Sperling case he was most proud of, his obit said.

Before he had headed to the New York Southern District, Lavin worked at the New York law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost. Lavin's obit said that former New York mayor and lawyer Rudy Giuliani was his "trial buddy" and had taught him the ropes in the courtroom.

He had decided criminal law was his calling after viewing the 1959 American courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Murder", and made his way through Fordham University School of Law, his obit said.

Born in the Bronx in 1940, Lavin had attended Cardinal Hayes High School, a Catholic school for boys, and then went straight into the U.S. Marine Corps. He took jobs to help his mother pay bills growing up, including one caddying at the Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester County, where TV star Ed Sullivan golfed and would occasionally drive Lavin home, the obit said.

Survived by his daughter, and sons, and grandchildren, and predeceased by his wife, Lavin was a "voracious reader," and loved fishing.

"Jim was not a 'standard' suburban dad," the obit said. "He was unconventional, with faults and foibles. But he was quick-witted, sarcastic beyond belief, ethical, brilliant and tried the best he knew."

"Dad, rest in peace," the obit concluded.