Judge James Reitz. Photo: NBC/YouTube

Longtime Putnam County Court Judge James Reitz, who also served as an acting Putnam County Supreme Court justice, suffered a heart attack on the bench and died Friday morning, state court system officials said.

He had been handling a family court matter at the time of the heart attack. A Legal Aid attorney and a lawyer for the children were in the courtroom when it occurred, said Lucian Chalfen, a state Unified Court System spokesman.

In a phone interview late Friday afternoon, Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell said that, according to what she had heard about the incident, Reitz had completed one case and then asked a court officer for help.

“He said, 'John, I think I need you to help me,'” Odell said.

It was unclear Friday whether the judge had health issues that had been diagnosed in recent years.

In the moments after Reitz, who was 57, suffered the heart attack, court officers used both CPR and an automatic electronic defibrillator to resuscitate him, Chalfen said.

The judge was then taken by ambulance to Putnam Hospital Center with court officers accompanying him. But he passed away shortly after arriving, Chalfen said.

Odell said the officers and others who jumped into action, including police, EMS, fire department and emergency department personnel, were “tireless” and “heroic” in their efforts to save the judge.

The county executive, who'd also been a friend of Reitz's since they were local teenagers, said that the lower Hudson River Valley county, with a population of nearly 100,000 as of the 2010 census, had “lost a respected leader.”

In the years after joining Putnam County Court's bench in 2007, Reitz became an “outspoken advocate for addiction recovery and second chances,” Odell said in a news release.

“That is why he was a pioneer for his beloved Drug Treatment Court,” she said, adding that the “program was instrumental in saving countless lives and families in Putnam County.”

Later Friday, in a phone interview, she expanded on Reitz's strong belief in the drug treatment court, while noting that Putman's program, and Reitz himself, were featured in an NBC News program on U.S. drug courts.

“He took it to a whole other level,” Odell said of his work on the drug court, which she said has kept many addicts out of jail while directing them to treatment.

“He was constantly raising the bar [for the program] and giving opportunities to those who had fallen prey to addiction,” she continued, because ”he saw that it was working, and he loved that—he saw that the recidivism rate had declined dramatically” under the program.

“We were talking today about Jimmy Reitz, and that's who he was,” she said. “If he could save a life, he was going to try—from the bench and from the street.”

In the Putnam County courthouse hallways and courtrooms, the judge was well-known and widely liked.

“He was very upbeat, all the time,” said Odell. “And he always approached you with a handshake and a smile. He'd always say, 'If you need anything let me know.'”

She also called the judge “a pillar of this community,” expressed how hard the loss was for her, and said that “I know the entire community mourns this tragic loss.”

“Jim was always the person I turned to for support in good times and bad times and his advice was honest and from the heart,” she said.

Reitz had been a lifelong Putnam County resident and had been active in community service and volunteering, including as a longtime rotarian “who epitomized Service Above Oneself,” the news release noted.

He'd graduated from Mercy College in 1986 and from Thomas M Cooley Law School in 1989.

And he'd married “the love of his life” Barbara. They lived in Mahopac.

He started on the bench as a Carmel Town Court Justice in 1996 and then became a multibench judge of the Putnam County Court in 2007. Before that, according to Odell, he'd practiced law solo and with a firm.

“Jimmy loved the law,” she recalled. “He was very passionate about families and people that needed help. To right wrongs.”

And “he was his happiest when he was in the courtroom,” she said.

“If he had to be taken this early” in life, “we are all finding great comfort that he was on the bench and in the courtroom that he loved.”

Visiting hours for Reitz will be June 17 from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Putnam County Training & Operations Center at 112 Old Route 6, Carmel, NY. A mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. on June 18 at St James the Apostle Church, 14 Gleneida Avenue, in Carmel. Odell said Reitz is survived by his wife Barbara and step-children.