Community Chat

[Oznell]

New York is being rocked today after learning that Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, one of seven judges on the New York State Court of Appeals, was found dead in the Hudson River yesterday in Manhattan.

When I first read about this, they had not drawn any conclusions about cause of death; now they seem to think the likely cause was suicide.  The judge's brother committed suicide 3 years ago, and her mother died one year ago.  No note has been found.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-signs-criminality-york-judges-death-46773574

Suicide may be be cause, but I'm always concerned when a highly placed member of the judicial system or law enforcement is found dead in mysterious circumstances.

These people are often the victim of vengeful members of the underworld with whom they have professionally dealt.

Judge Abdus-Salaam apparently had an impeccable reputation for integrity and was, by all accounts, a lovely person.   A tragic ending to a lengthy and lauded judicial career.

[Catty2]

My first thought wasn't suicide.  More like someone with a grudge against her.  Hope they find out what happened.  Very sad. 

[YorkieonmyPillow]

Some people still wondering about Justice Scalia, also....

[JaneMarple]

She is a "first" in this country so you never know. 

(I deliberately left out why she's a first so that the thread would stay up)

[Melania]

Jane, it is curious.

Wonder what cases she was overseeing. It's curious with the degree of cover ups being investigated.

I feel very sorry for her.

[fthunt]

She had a husband - more info may come to light.

[software]

Hope "suicide" is not code for "no investigation"

@Oznell

[tansy]

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@YorkieonmyPillow wrote:

Some people still wondering about Justice Scalia, also....

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What people??

[Oznell]

I remember that talk at the time of Scalia's death, tansy.  A former Washington D.C. police investigator was critical of several aspects of the investigation, including the fact that no autopsy was done.  That, and the circumstances that it happened remote from his D.C. home (he was on a vacation in Texas), and the fact that it was reported that a pillow was found in a strange spot relative to his head, led to speculation.

I believe the pillow thing was later explained plausibly, but don't know what the other questionable things were that he was concerned about...

[Plaid Pants2]

The authorities will investigate, especially since she was such a high profile person.

Investigations take time. 

They don't solve it in 60 minutes, like in fictional tv shows.

If, after they have investigated, and they deem that the cause of death was suicide, I hope that people will accept that, and not second guess the trained investigators findings.