Leonie Brinkema

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Leonie Brinkema
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
Assumed office
October 20, 1993
Appointed by Bill Clinton
Preceded by Albert V. Bryan Jr.
Personal details
Born Leonie Milhomme Brinkema
(1944-06-26) June 26, 1944 (age 79)
Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.
Spouse(s) John Robert Brinkema (m. 1966)
Children Robert Aaron
Eugenie Alexandra
Parents Alexander Juste Milhomme
Modeste Leonie Milhomme
Alma mater Douglass College,
Rutgers University,
Cornell Law School
(also University of Michigan, New York University)
[1][2]

Leonie M. Brinkema (born June 26, 1944) is a United States district court judge for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Early life and education

Of Dutch descent,[citation needed] Brinkema was born in Teaneck, New Jersey.[3] She received her B.A. from Douglass College in 1966 and undertook graduate studies in philosophy at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1966) and New York University (1967–1969). She earned her M.L.S. at Rutgers University in 1970 and her J.D. at Cornell Law School in 1976.

Legal career

She worked in the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section 1976–1977, and then the U.S. Attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia, Criminal Division 1977–1983. During 1983–1984 she returned to the Criminal Division and worked as a solo practitioner from 1984–1985.

Federal judicial career

Brinkema was a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia from 1985 to 1993.

On August 6, 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Brinkema to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia vacated by Albert V. Bryan. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 18, 1993, and received her commission on October 20, 1993. She took up her post on October 23, 1993.

Brinkema presided over RTC v. Lerma et al. (1995), a case that involved the reproduction of materials owned by the Church of Scientology. Brinkema found for the defendants in most of the claims, and awarded minimum damages of $2,500 for copyright infringement, citing the "increasingly vitriolic rhetoric" of RTC's legal filings.

On October 28, 2003, she sentenced al-Qaeda operative Iyman Faris to twenty years imprisonment for providing material support to the group.

Brinkema presided over the case of 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.[4] When she asked about the videotapes showing the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the government denied their existence.[5] As she sentenced Moussaoui to life in a supermax prison, she told him he would "die with a whimper."[6] She told him: “You came here to be a martyr and to die in a great big bang of glory, but to paraphrase the poet T. S. Eliot, instead, you will die with a whimper. The rest of your life you will spend in prison." Mr. Moussaoui began to respond, but Judge Brinkema continued. “You will never again get a chance to speak,” she said, “and that is an appropriate and fair ending.”[7]

On April 2, 2009, Brinkema weighed in on the question of whether terrorist detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could be prosecuted in the civilian justice system.[8]

In 2011, she presided over the fraud trial of Lee Farkas, CEO of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. During his sentencing hearing on June 30, 2011, she said that she did not observe any genuine remorse, and sentenced the 58-year-old Farkas to 30 years in federal prison.[9] She ordered Farkas and six others to pay a total of about $US3.5 billion in restitution.[10]

Personal life

Brinkema's husband is a 1961 graduate of Ramapo High School.[11] He works for the Judicial Conference of the United States.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Leonie Milhomme Brinkema." Marquis Who's Who TM. Marquis Who's Who, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: K2015128316. Fee, via Fairfax County Public Library. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Leonie M Brinkema." Carroll's Federal Directory. Carroll Publishing, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Document Number: K2415008174. Fee, via Fairfax County Public Library. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
  3. ↑ Goldman, Jessica. "Moussaoui Judge Minces No Words", CBS News, March 13, 2006. Accessed may 26, 2010.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Sources

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
1993–present		 Incumbent
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