Published: April 11, 2007 02:01 am      

CRIME: Judge called a tenacious prosecutor, 'brilliant' mind

The State Supreme Court justice who is accused of hitting a utility pole and leaving the scene of the accident Monday is described by colleagues as a tough prosecutor in her days as a practicing attorney and more recently, a fair judge.

Amy Jo Fricano’s rise through the legal ranks was described by one political insider as “meteoric.”

But that rise could now be cut drastically short.

Fricano, 52, has been placed on paid administrative leave until the charges against her are adjudicated; meanwhile her cases have been reassigned to other judges, according to Sharon Townsend, administrative judge of the Eighth Judicial District.

If Fricano is convicted of the charges laid against her, her future will be decided by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

In December 2003, Fricano was involved in an accident that resulted in her taking a leave of absence from January to March 2004. Fricano was walking in a parking lot and was injured as she tried to get out of the way of a car. She suffered a back injury and was in so much pain that she was known to sit on an exercise ball in court instead of a chair.

When she was arrested Monday, she refused a blood test but told a deputy she had been taking prescription painkillers.

Niagara County District Attorney Matthew J. Murphy said he will ask that his office be recused from Fricano’s case and that a special prosecutor be brought in because of her prior employment in his office.

After a seven-year stint in the Erie County district attorney’s office and time in private practice, Fricano was hired in 1990 by then-District Attorney Peter Broderick and stayed until 1993.

Murphy chose her to lead the county’s special victim’s unit, which specialized in prosecuting child abuse and sex crimes.

“She was excellent,” Murphy said.

John Cole, former chief investigator in the Sheriff’s Department and a friend of Fricano’s, said, “She’s a brilliant legal mind, there’s no two ways about it.”

Sheriff Thomas Beilein said Fricano was known for being conservative and strict on the bench.

“She was a hard-hitting district attorney, too,” Beilein said.

When she was an assistant district attorney, Fricano ran in 1993 for a county court judgeship and won.

A graduate of the Starpoint School District, where the primary building is named after her father who was a principal there, Fricano graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Law.

In 1999, Fricano, a Republican, was elected to a 14-year term in State Supreme Court.

She had heard cases in Niagara Falls and then in Lockport, where in 2003 a courtroom was set up for her.

About a year and a half ago she began hearing criminal cases in Erie County.

Fricano took a second leave in 2004 from May to September because of a family emergency.

“It’s private and I can’t talk about it,” Fricano told Greater Niagara Newspapers at the time. “If it was about me, I would, because I’m a public official.”

Contact reporter Jill Terreriat 282-2311, ext. 2250.