U.S. District Judge William Walls. Photo: Carmen Natale/ALM

U.S. District Senior Judge William Walls of the District of New Jersey, who presided over the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, has died at the age of 86.

Walls, who died July 11, was the first African American male to serve on New Jersey's federal court. Walls served as a municipal judge in Newark and a state judge in Essex County before President Bill Clinton nominated him to U.S. district court in 1994. He went on senior status in 2005 but continued to hear cases until shortly before his death.

He presided over trials in a manner marked by strict control over the proceedings and by obscure references to history, literature and movies. During the Menendez trial he once made a joking reference to judicial “head-knocking” of lawyers by invoking the name of Torquemada, a figure in the Spanish Inquisition. He also made references to classic movies such as “All About Eve” and “A Bridge Too Far.”

Walls frequently upbraided both prosecutors and defense lawyers during Menendez's two-month trial on corruption charges in 2017, which ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges. Menendez was accused of advocating for the business interests of a friend, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, before federal agencies in exchange for a series of luxury trips and accommodations. The Department of Justice initially said it would retry the case but it dropped the remaining charges in early 2018.

Walls was a tough judge, but an even-handed one, said Stephen Orlofsky, a former district court judge who served with Walls.

“He had a very dry sense of humor. He always tried to do the right thing. I will miss him personally, as a friend, and I will miss him as a judge,” Orlofsky, now with Blank Rome in Princeton, said. “He was equally tough on the defense and the prosecution. He expected lawyers to be prepared to do their job—he was not pro-defense or pro-prosecution. He called it the way he saw it,” Orlofsky said.

Walls was nominated to the federal bench by Clinton in 1994 at the recommendation of U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. Walls replaced U.S. District Judge Harold Ackerman. Orlofsky, who was also nominated by Clinton and recommended by Lautenberg, recalled hearing the senator praise Walls.

Noting how Walls was raised in modest circumstances, and how he worked hard to obtain scholarships to Dartmouth College and Yale Law School, Orlofsky said, “It was really fulfillment of a Horatio Alger story. He was very bright, very hardworking. I remember how impressed Senator Lautenberg was with him.”

Walls' nomination by Clinton followed that of U.S. District Judge Anne Thompson, who was both the first woman and first African American on the court. Walls served as a municipal judge in Newark and a state judge in Essex County before he was elevated to the federal court bench.

Criminal defense lawyer Darren Gelber, of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge, remembered Walls as “a no-nonsense” judge. “It was very clear to me he was in complete control of the courtroom. He expected lawyers to be prepared and on time. He was very direct. You certainly knew where you stood with him,” Gelber said.

According to testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing in 1974, Walls grew up in poverty in Atlantic City, raised by his father and a grandmother after his mother left the family when he was 2.

Walls graduated from Dartmouth in 1954 and from Yale Law School in 1957. At Dartmouth, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Later, from 1957 to 1962, he was a reservist in the Army National Guard.

He was an assistant corporation counsel for Newark from 1962 to 1968 and a Newark municipal court judge from 1968 to 1970. From 1970 to 1973 he served as corporation counsel for Newark, serving in the administration of Kenneth Gibson, the city's first black mayor.

Information about funeral arrangements was not available Monday.