By Ivan Pereira
State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman has been involved in Queens politics and law for nearly 50 years. After graduating from New York University's Law School in 1960, Cooperman, a former Army lieutenant, began his career practicing at private firms in Queens that specialized in commercial and negligence litigation.After a two-year stint as an assistant counsel on the Committee on Grievances at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, he was elected to the state Assembly in 1968, representing a district that encompassed Flushing and the northern part of Jamaica.David Cohen, the president of the Queens County Bar Association, said he first met Cooperman in the 1970s during his tenure in the Assembly and was amazed with how hard he worked for his constituents.”He was very much in tune with the community's needs and issues. He spent a lot of timethere getting to know residents,” he said.In 1980, Cooperman left the Assembly, where he was a member of the Judiciary Committee, when he was elected to serve in Queens Civil Court. Three years later he ascended to the Supreme Court and transferred to the Criminal Court later that year.Since taking the bench, he has sat on hundreds of important criminal cases, according to Cohen. One of his most famous trials was a 1986 case that resulted in the convictions of two police officers who tortured a suspect with a stun gun.Cohen said is confident that Cooperman, a twice-married father of three, will be fair in the Sean Bell case because he always puts the law first and is not easily swayed by the arguments of prosecutors or defense attorneys.”I don't think he will succumb to pressure from one side or another. He's not afraid to do what the law mandates,” he said.The law isn't the only field in which Cooperman has expertise, according to an article posted on the Web site for the Richmond Hill law firm Scheich & Goldsmith. An autographed picture of New York Giants all-star Bobby Thompson hitting “the shot heard around the world” against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1951 play-off game along with an old team photo taken during the last game they played at the Polo Grounds hang proudly in his chambers.”I love to watch and talk about sports,” he said in the article.
