Richard West - An Unauthorized Biography of Jeanine Pirro: The Renowned District Attorney and Television Legal Analyst [Pamphlet]

An Unauthorized Biography of Jeanine Pirro

The Renowned District Attorney and Television Legal Analyst

By Richard West

All rights reserved 2018 Richard West

Jeanine Pirro is well-known for her reporting on the O.J. Simpson trial, her dogged pursuit of Robert Durst, and her telegenic presence on the Fox News program, Justice with Judge Jeanine. She is an articulate, intelligent, and persuasive advocate for justice. She was also tremendously successful as a District Attorney in Westchester County, New York.

To become a success, though, she had to overcome chauvinism as one of relatively few female prosecutors in the 1970s, work through a difficult marriage and divorce, and struggle through several election campaigns. She then developed an impressive career in television.

Throughout, she demonstrated a commitment to hard work, justice, and the rights of victims. These are values she learned early in life.

Chapter 1

Early Years

Jeanine Pirro is a lifelong New Yorker. Before she was the articulate legal commentator we know her as today, she was a child in Elmira, New York. Born in 1951, Pirro was the daughter of two working parents. Her mother served as a model for department stores and her father sold mobile homes. She remembers home life as happy and supportive. The family was Catholic, and Pirro attended Catholic schools.

Jeanine Pirros mother, Esther, was born in New York but moved to Lebanon at age five to be raised by extended family. She spent her youth being raised under strict conditions with few of the opportunities she might have enjoyed in the U.S. Esthers father served in the U.S. navy; there, he met a young man of Lebanese heritage named Leo Ferris and told him about his daughter in Lebanon. Ferris traveled to Lebanon, met Esther, and fell in love with her. They married and moved to America.

Esther had not been afforded the same educational opportunities that Jeanine experienced. Jeanine reflected that, She instilled in me the importance of never taking a second seat, never not competing because youre a woman. She also taught Jeanine the importance of serving others; together, they cared for two elderly women who lived nearby. Pirro respected her mothers sense of justice and willingness to speak up for others.

Pirro also remembers her mother telling her to be sure to look her best, and it seems that she learned the importance of fashion and personal appearance from her mother. Later in life, as a prosecutor, Jeanine Pirro would make fashion a part of her courtroom strategy, wearing read to draw attention during opening statements and wearing black for solemnity during closing statements.

One of her earliest memories is of being bullied at school when she was five years old. Another little girl beat her up, and the experience stayed with her. Years later she commented that, What remained with me was the thinking that victims don't choose to be injured. This thought would help her be sensitive to the many victims she would encounter over the course of her legal career.

By age six, Jeanine Pirro had decided that she would grow up to be a lawyer. In the 1950s, this was not an obvious ambition for a little girl to have, but Jeanine Pirro was going to make it a reality. She recalls that adults thought her plan to become a lawyer was cute and asked, Thats nice, Jeanine, but dont you want to be a mommy?

Jeanine Pirro was not merely a dreamer, hoping that one day she would become a lawyer. She actively pursued opportunities that could take her in that direction. At age 17, Pirro worked for free in the office of the Chemung County District Attorney, John O'Hara. After school, she would head over to the office and gain some real-world experience. She liked the District Attorney, even though he was a Republican and her mother and father were Democrats.

Chapter 2

The Law and Marriage

After years of hard work, Jeanine Pirro was admitted to Albany Law School. She was one of a very small number of women in her class and found herself repeatedly accused of taking a mans place in the school. Nonetheless, she worked hard and excelled. She made the law review and graduated magna cum laude. After law school, in 1975, Pirro accepted a position as assistant district attorney for Westchester County, New York a county with a population of around 900,000.

Reflecting on her early legal work, Pirro recalls that abused women were treated poorly by law enforcement and the courts. Until 1977, New York law prevented prosecutors from getting involved in cases of abuse between husbands and wives. Over the course of her career, Pirro would work to ensure that battered women received support from the law. In 1978, she introduced a Domestic Violence Unit to Westchester County one of the first four in the country.

In her early years, though, Pirro struggled to overcome gender bias and gain courtroom experience. She eventually argued her first case, a DWI, by volunteering to take the case on behalf of a male colleague and let him take the credit for her work. She won the case, and success led to further trial opportunities. Even in the courtroom, though, she was treated differently based on her gender. Once, a judge pulled her aside to comment on her legs. She recalls responding rudely to his advances; he then retaliated by dismissing her case.

In addition to launching her legal career, Jeanine Pirro met Al Pirro during law school, and she married him in 1975. The two would eventually have two children, the first a girl named Christie and the second a boy named Alexander. While Jeanine described her husband as the brightest guy I'd ever met, over the ensuing years it would become clear that she and her husband, both lawyers, had very different views of law and life.

In the early 1980s, Al Pirro reportedly had affairs with two paralegals at a law firm in Florida. It is unclear whether Jeanine immediately learned of the infidelity, but eventually she would know all about it.

In addition to Al Pirros marital infidelity, there were questions about his legal dealings. In 1986, Jeanine Pirro ran for lieutenant governor of the state of New York. Her campaign came to an abrupt halt, however, when it was widely alleged in the media that Al had business dealings connected with organized crime.

Fortunately for Jeanine, though, the public was forgiving. In the November 1990 elections, she won her campaign to become a County Court judge in Westchester County. She had been uncertain about whether she should run for the position because she believed her work as a prosecutor was helping many victims, and especially women and children in domestic abuse cases. She realized, though, that her presence on the court would be important. She was the first female judge in the county.

There were inconveniences to the job; for example, the judges chambers had only one restroom, and it was used by the men. For Jeanine Pirro, though, winning the ten-year position was a huge victory. She planned to bring a female perspective to the previously all-male judiciary. In her first case as a judge, she sentenced a man to jail time for failing to pay child support, which was an unusual step to take at that time. Judge Pirro would not serve her full ten-year term, though. After three years, she decided to leave the bench.

In 1993, she campaigned to be elected District Attorney for Westchester County. During the District Attorney campaign, media observers once again raised the issue of Pirro's husband's questionable business dealings, but voters focused on Jeanine Pirro's qualifications rather than her husband's business.

Meanwhile, Mike Cherkasky, her opponent, argued that Pirro would not be able to handle the demands of the office because she was a woman with two children. To address this concern, Pirro spoke publicly about how she had sufficient help at home, including a husband who would watch the kids when she had to spend late nights at the office.