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    • Palm Beach County judge Barry Cohen dies at 74, remembered with kindness
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    Palm Beach County judge Barry Cohen dies at 74, remembered with kindness

    Harry Posted on

    Longtime judge Barry Cohen is remembered for his kindness and mentorship during his years on the bench.

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    WEST PALM BEACH — Barry Cohen, longtime judge Passion for civil rights and an impressive command of the lawHe died on Sunday. He was 74 years old.

    Cohen was a fixture at the Palm Beach County courthouse, working first as a prosecutor and then as an assistant public defender from 1971 to 1980. Before being elected to the board, he worked as a criminal defense attorney in the private sector for 10 years. In 1990.

    Cohen presided over criminal cases there for more than two decades. His trials, punctuated by smoke breaks, were often followed by invitations back to Cohen’s office, where he mentored the young prosecutors and public defenders who argued before him.

    He retired from the bench in 2016 but soon returned to serve as a senior judge, presiding over misdemeanor and criminal cases and trials until this year.

    “He had the ability to slow things down and treat everyone with respect,” said defense attorney Franklin Prince. “There was no better feeling than walking into the courtroom and seeing Barry pinch another judge.”

    Unusual cases and his love of the law marked Barry Cohen’s years as a judge

    Never one to speak out, Cohen’s style was one that earned him the admiration of defense attorneys and the respect of prosecutors, even those whose cases he dismissed because of a police officer’s unlawful conduct.

    The judge has had his share of serious cases and strange cases. He once presided over the trial of a man who tossed a live, 4-foot alligator through a Wendy’s drive-thru window in 2016, leading to his arrest on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

    Cohen called it “the strangest pattern of truth” he had seen in his more than 25 years on the bench. He sentenced the man to probation and ordered him to stay away from all animals except the man’s beloved dog.

    Cohen himself has been described as a dog lover. Defense attorney Donnie Murrell said he once ordered a convicted client to read and review the book “All Dogs Go to Heaven” as part of his sentence for a shooting.

    “The guy turned to me and said, ‘He’s treating me like a kid,'” Murrell recalled. “My response was: ‘You want him to treat you like an adult?’ “

    Years ago, Cohen presided over the trial of a man who shot and killed an alligator to protect his dog, Waggles, a Shepherd-Doberman mix who made a brief appearance in the courtroom. Cohen acquitted the dog advocate, saying it “would be a complete farce of the law” to find him criminally liable for protecting his dog.

    Perhaps Cohen’s devotion to the New York Yankees was rivaled only by his love of dogs and the law. Cohen would watch the team play in the World Series alongside his own dog, Jeter, praising or scolding the pup depending on star shortstop Derek Jeter’s on-screen performance.

    Attorney John Cleary recalled one afternoon at the courthouse when a man decked out head to toe in Yankees gear was summoned to serve as a potential juror for one of Cohen’s cases.

    “He said, ‘I played for the Yankees in ’63,'” Cleary said. he said. “I laughed because I quickly realized Cohen didn’t believe it for a second. And I said, ‘You just ran into one of maybe five guys in the world who was at the top of the ’63 roster. HEAD.’ “

    Cleary said Cohen didn’t tell her he was lying.

    He was not one to embarrass or embarrass lawyers, even those who made mistakes in the middle of a trial. Where another judge might rap his knuckles on the bench and scold an attorney, Cleary said Cohen would simply disperse the jury and sit quietly, staring at the attorneys for long periods of time until he felt a tinge of embarrassment.

    “And then he would calmly explain, ‘That’s not the law.’ The lawyer, because he had a very thick New York accent,” Cleary said.

    His strong stances have won him supporters, opponents, and a Supreme Court censure

    Never one to shy away, Cohen spoke openly about the crime of “driving while black,” the disparities in mandatory minimum sentences, and the far-reaching harms of the war on drugs. He criticized the Palm Beach County State’s Attorney’s Office for prosecuting what he considered unnecessary cases, wasting the court system’s limited resources and prosecuting people he said were mentally ill rather than criminals.

    “Here was a judge who wasn’t afraid to speak out,” defense attorney Mike Salnick said. “He was a practical person. When there was a problem, he had the courage to speak his mind in a respectful and understanding way.”

    Cohen’s views made him a target in the eyes of former State’s Attorney Peter Antonacci, who filed a motion in 2012 to bar Cohen from felony cases. When this request was rejected, the same allegations emerged in a confidential complaint filed with the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

    A group of justices took a seven-hour bus ride to Tallahassee in 2014 to support Cohen. Fifteen stood up in protest as the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court chastised the judge for using the bench as a platform to speak out against perceived injustices.

    Before the trial, he hosted a party attended by his friends and colleagues, the judge, prosecutor and defense attorneys. Each wore a pin with the same message that appeared in the obituary’s comments section 10 years later: “I’m Barry Cohen.”

    Cohen is survived by his daughter Mindy, son-in-law Matt Machera, grandson Lucca Machera, son Jeremy and daughter-in-law Wendy Chow, brother Harold Cohen, sister-in-law Nadine Bower, nephew Mitchell Cohen and nephews. Shari Bower Weitz, Jaime Bower Lewis and Alisha Bower Grimm with their families and dog Arlo. His wife of 52 years, Bonnie, predeceased him in 2023.

    A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, November 6, at 2:30 pm at the IJ Morris Star of David, 9321 Memorial Park Road in Palm Beach Gardens. His family has requested donations be made in his honor to the Florida Innocence Project and the United States Holocaust Museum.

    Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at: [email protected]. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

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