Walter Griffen Winne (February 18, 1889 – October 15, 1972) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

and

U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey is the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey. On December 16, 2021, Philip R. Sellinger was sworn in as U.S. Attorney. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has juris ...

. As Prosecutor for Bergen County, New Jersey, he was indicted on misconduct charges in 1951 but was subsequently acquitted. He was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York to George T. and Agnes T. (Goff) Winne. He grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey and graduated from Hackensack High School in 1906. He attended

Rutgers College Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

, graduating in 1910 with a Bachelor of Literature degree. He attended

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

and received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

degree in 1912. Winne was first elected to the

in 1916 and served for four terms. In 1922 President

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

appointed him

. His tenure was marked by many controversies over the enforcement of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

in the state. He held the post until 1928, when he returned to private practice. He was appointed Bergen County Counsel in 1934 and Prosecutor in 1944. In 1950, he was removed from office as Bergen County Prosecutor by Deputy

Attorney General of New Jersey The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confirmed by the New Jersey Senate, and term limited ...

Nelson Stamler, who was conducting an investigation into gambling in the county. He was indicted on 19 counts of misconduct in 1951, with the charges alleging that he had failed to crack down on illegal gambling in Bergen County. U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver, who was holding Senate hearings on organized crime, called law enforcement in Bergen County under Winne "a sorry spectacle.""Walter G. Winne, Jersey Official"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 17, 1972. Accessed December 17, 2022. "Mr. Winne was born in 1889, and grew up in Hackensack. He completed his undergraduate work at Rutgers University and received a law degree in 1912 at New York Law School. He was elected to the New Jersey Assembly for Bergen County on the Republican ticket in 1916 and re‐elected for three succeeding terms." One of Winne's attorneys in the trial was Joseph Weintraub, who would later serve as Chief Justice of the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

Richard J. Hughes Richard Joseph Hughes (August 10, 1909December 7, 1992) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge. A Democrat, he served as the 45th governor of New Jersey from 1962 to 1970, and as Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1973 to ...

, later

Governor of New Jersey The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...

, presided as

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pr ...

judge, and ruled in the pretrial phase that there was insufficient evidence to bring Winne to trial. The decision was reversed by the State Supreme Court and Winne was ultimately tried. In 1954, Winne was found not guilty on 16 counts of the indictment, and the state dropped the remaining counts. He attempted to recoup $34,000 in lost salary for the three years that he was removed from office, but he lost his case in a 5-2 decision by the State Supreme Court. Winne continued in private legal practice until his retirement in 1963. He died at the age of 83 at the Van Dyke Nursing Home in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair () is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a wealthy and diverse commuter town and suburb of New York City within the New York metropolitan area. ...

and was to be interred at

Hackensack Cemetery Hackensack Cemetery is a cemetery located in Hackensack, New Jersey, United States, founded by Baptists, Dutch Reformed, and Congregational benefactors in the 1890s, as a result of overcrowding in local churchyards and availability of open space. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winne, Walter G. 1889 births 1972 deaths Hackensack High School alumni Politicians from Brooklyn Politicians from Hackensack, New Jersey Rutgers University alumni New York Law School alumni Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly United States Attorneys for the District of New Jersey 20th-century American legislators 20th-century New Jersey politicians