Nealon to become longest-serving federal district judge in U.S. history
Scranton — On a sunny September day four years ago, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder visited William J. Nealon in his chambers in the downtown Scranton federal building bearing the judge’s name.
The smiling 91-year-old senior U.S. district judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the former federal corruption prosecutor turned nation’s top cop embraced and exchanged pleasantries. They have known each other since the early 1980s, when Holder successfully prosecuted reputed Pittston mobster James “Dave” Osticco in what became one of the area’s most famous corruption cases. Nealon supervised the grand jury investigating the case. Holder described the judge as a “role model.”
As the two friends caught up, the conversation turned to the judge’s professional longevity.
Nealon, who has sat on the Middle District bench since his December 1962 appointment by President John F. Kennedy, mentioned he was about four years away from becoming the longest-serving federal district judge in the nation’s history.
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