Colleagues and adversaries recall ‘ferocious’ attorney Anthony Lombardino
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Former Queens prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Anthony Lombardino died Monday. Photo courtesy of Boris Nektalov
By David Brand
Defense attorney Anthony Lombardino’s sharp cross examinations, unmatched summations and courtroom flare are still recalled by colleagues and adversaries decades after they encountered him in the courtroom.
Lombardino’s death Monday at age 90 has spurred several Queens lawyers to share their memories of a man who prosecuted some of New York City’s most notorious criminals as an assistant district attorney before later representing them as clients.
“Tony will be very much missed. He was an able and worthy adversary and his summations were routinely complete with his own special brand of flash and pizzazz,” said former Queens Investigations Division Chief Peter Crusco. “In my more than 30 years as a prosecutor involved in various mob related cases, Tony Lombardino represented his clients’ rights ferociously, yet few I faced were more prepared, honest and honorable than Tony.”
Lombardino practiced law for more than 60 years, including a few prominent prosecutorial roles.
He served as chief of the Homicide Bureau and the Organized Crime Bureau during his time in the Queens DA’s Office before transitioning to a job as Chief of the Criminal Division for the Eastern District of New York.
Lombardino later entered the defense bar, often representing high-profile mobsters, including a defendant in the international Pizza Connection conspiracy and Jimmy “The Gent” Burke, a made man portrayed by Robert de Niro in the film Goodfellas.
Attorney Dennis Coppin, a former Queens ADA, remembers the first time he went up against Lombardino in a courtroom during a Mapp hearing on a gun case. During cross examination, Lombardino rattled a federal agent testifying against his client to the point that the agent identified Lombardino’s assistant as the defendant, but Lombardino seemed to let the misidentification slide.
“I’m thinking as DA, ‘Tony must have missed that,” Coppin said. “About 10 minutes pass and he says, ‘Oh by the way, let the record show the witness could not identify the defendant.’”
“The guy was a fireball,” said Coppin, who later worked with Lombardino as a defense attorney. “He was fantastic. He had a lot of talent.”
Lombardino’s law partner Boris Nektalov said seeing his future colleague in the courtroom for the first time was one of the reasons he got into law.
“It was my dream to be like Anthony Lombardino and to get to work with him was the honor of a lifetime,” Nektalov said.
Years later, Nektalov marveled at his late partner’s capacity for work, even after suffering a stroke 10 years ago.
“He would come to court with a cane, every single day for a trial,” he said. “He was almost 90 years old and still working.”
Lombardino continued to handle cases throughout the COVID crisis, even as his friends and colleagues made sure he remain isolated to avoid contracting the illness.
“A paralegal visited him in his backyard and they did social distancing, but he kept working,” Nektalov said.
Lombardino, a lifelong Queens resident, will be buried on Sept. 25 at Maple Grove Cemetery. Visitation will take place Sept. 24 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Hillebrand Funeral Home at 63-17 Woodhaven Blvd. in Rego Park.
