by Mark Hamblett
New York Law Journal
Judge Harold Baer Jr. who served on the bench in the Southern District for 20 years, died Tuesday night, leaving legacy of commitment to civil rights and diversity. He was 81.
Services are planned for Sunday at 1:15 p.m. at Riverside Chapel, 180 West 76th St.
A 1994 appointee of President Bill Clinton, Baer had a career that included a stint as chief of the Criminal Division in the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office, service on the Mollen Commission investigation into police corruption and 10 years as a state Supreme Court Justice in Manhattan.
Among the many cases Baer presided over during his long career was the endless litigation over unconstitutional confinement conditions for pretrial detainees at Rikers Island known as the Benjamin case. The case was almost 20 years old when Baer inherited it from Judge Morris Lasker, and he presided over it for nearly another 20 years, issuing dozens of rulings on detainee searches and discipline, setting population limits to ease overcrowding and riding herd on jail officials to enforce the terms of consent decrees.
Just last week, Baer chided Correction Department officials for failing to provide relief to Rikers detainees in solitary confinement from the stifling heat in their cells—a violation of his 2004 order in the case.