The retired upstate judge and former prosecutor who allegedly took his own life in a shootout with the FBI was tied to a major bribery scam through a damning trail of cancelled checks and text messages.
Stewart Rosenwasser, 72, cashed dozens of checks and money orders from his wealthy co-defendant over a nearly two-year period that saw him pocket $63,000 in exchange for fabricating an embezzlement case as a top prosecutor with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, a federal indictment in the case reveals.
The checks from co-defendant Mout’z Soudani, including a string of $5,000 payments marked “loan,” were part of a paper trail that tied Rosenwasser to the scandal — and sent federal agents to arrest him at his home on Tuesday morning when he opened fire on them then apparently took his own life.
“It’s truly heartbreaking that it ended this way,” Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said in a statement Wednesday. “My heartfelt condolences go out to his family.”
The US Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the 43-page indictment voted Monday against Rosenwasser and Soudani speaks volumes about the case.
Soudani was arrested and arraigned on federal corruption charges Tuesday and released on bail, prosecutors said Wednesday — but it is the disgraced prosecutor who has made headlines.
The allegations read like a spy novel, with the then-prosecutor and the former restauranteur meeting secretly at out-of-the-way spots that included a local diner where Soudani allegedly handed over a check for $15,000 in November 2022, according to the document.
The payoffs would continue for months, with Soudani allegedly paying off his prosecutor pal to drum up an embezzlement case against Soudani’s sister and nephew, who he accused of stealing from him.
Rosenwasser had known Soudani, a millionaire onetime restauranteur, for nearly 40 years and even represented him in court in the 1990s, according to the indictment.
He earned his degree from Albany Law School in 1977 and started his 47-year career in private practice until joining the DA’s office and was elected a county court judge in 1999.
He retired from the bench in 2006, but 13 years later rejoined the Orange County District Attorney’s Office as special counsel of Policy, Research and Legal Development, which put him in charge of the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
But by October 2022, federal prosecutors said Rosenwasser was promising his old friend Soudani that he would put “maximum effort” into investigating and prosecuting his sister and nephew.
The prosecutor was true to his word, and both Soudani’s newphew, Martin, and sister, Eman, would be arrested and charged with embezzling $1.6 million from Mout’z Soudani, the indictment said.
“I’m going to go into grand jury as soon as I receive your certified bank records,” Rosenwasser allegedly texted Soudani on Dec. 23, 2022. “I have arranged an audit of all the electronic transfers.”
Soudani responded, “I give you my word at the end you will be extremely more than happy god bless you you the only man who could do this. Please I have to meet with you wherever you say for five minutes before you leave to Colorado thanks.”
In March 2023, Martin and Eman Soudani were charged with grand larceny and other charges, and the case against both moved forward as the lead prosecutor against them.
In court the following month, Martin Soudani’s lawyer asked Rosenwasser to recuse himself from the case, arguing that his “relationship to this family creates at least the appearance of a conflict.”
Rosenwasser claimed there was no conflict, and denied having represented Mout’z Soudani.
“As I indicated to you during our first phone conversation, I do not recall a single instance that I served as Mount’s Soudani’s personal attorney and would not even describe my relationship with the Soudani family as social,” he allegedly wrote the defense lawyer, prosecutors said.
The feds say that was a lie — and that Rosenwasser had taken $25,000 in bribes by then.
The payments kept coming, including from 10 money orders for $1,000 each that Soudani allegedly bought on May 10, 2023 — with Rosenwasser depositing $3,000 of it five days later.
With the heat building inside the DA’s office, Rosenwasser was finally taken off the embezzlement case in June 2023 — with the prosecution starting to fall apart.
Ultimately, the case against Eman Soudani was thrown out, while her son cut a deal, pleading guilty to grand larceny in exchange for a prison sentence of one to seven years in prison.
Yet, as late as January 2024, Rosenwasser cashed a $15,000 check from Mout’z Soudani.
On June 18, Mout’z Soudani confessed that Rosenwasser directed him “to pay him by money order and cash rather than check so that the money could not be easily traced back….”
Both men were indicted this week, with tragic consequences for Rosenwasser.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino
