The $676,000 Couple: How Staten Island’s McMahons Perfected Public Service as a Family Business

A Staten Island couple — both lifelong Democrats — have achieved the pinnacle of public service: They run the Republican-leaning Richmond County.

Michael McMahon serves as district attorney, while his wife, Judith McMahon, is a state Supreme Court judge.

Though technically “retired,” from government service, Michael continues his tireless work as district attorney while drawing a $130,000 pension. This pairs neatly with his $212,000 salary as district attorney.

Judge Judith McMahon receives $210,900 each year in salary as a judge while collecting a pension of $123,000. McMahons’ collective income—from two salaries and two pensions—totals nearly $676,000 a year. That’s 6.7 times the median Staten Island household income of about $101,200. And supporters say they are worth every penny.

The McMahons show that in public service, sometimes it’s the public doing the serving.

Part N: A Case Study in Judicial Efficiency

In 2017, Judge Judith McMahon, then the Administrative Judge, created a special narcotics calendar known as Part N. Though presented as a measure to streamline drug-related arrest and search warrant applications, it carried an added benefit: Judge Charles Troia, known for his sympathy to the DA’s office, dispensed with the everyday frivolous due process concerns and issued any warrant the McMahons cared to ask for.

Other judges would question warrants – was it fair? Was the informant reliable? Was there evidence?

Not Judge Troia. His friendship with the McMahons allowed him to sign off on everything.

The McMahons understood how this could help taxpayers. Even if the crime were not drug-related, but if they even suspected a single rock of crack cocaine, they would toss it to Special Narcotics and get any warrant they needed. If they knew a guy was guilty and they could not prove it, Administrative Judge Judy swung the warrant to Judge Troia.

Many bad guys were raided, arrested, and convicted before they even had a chance to get a defense attorney. And if someone was not guilty of the crime he was charged with, he probably did something else anyway, so it was justice.

The results were striking: warrants moved through without the usual due process friction. For DA McMahon, this was efficiency. For his wife, Judge McMahon, it offered her a chance as an administrative judge to exercise oversight of criminal matters that helped her husband. She sidestepped the strict requirement that she was not supposed to appear to be judging her husband’s cases, but the Office of Court Administration only said that for appearance’s sake. This was the way to avoid it altogether, with Judge Troia acting as their surrogate,

Staten Island Judge Charles Troia – “the friendly pen who never met a warrant he didn’t like.For taxpayers, it obviated the need for a lot of costly due process and helped get plea bargains instead of trials.

Although publicity, caused by then-attorney Richard Luthmann, ended Part N and cost Judge McMahon $50,000 in salary, while it worked, it was a dream come true for prosecutors.

The Office of Court Administration felt that they had to demote her, not for what she did, but because she got caught. The episode reveals a couple dedicated to maximizing their offices.

McMahons Secured Reelection with a Cross-Party Pact Brokered by Their Own Protégé

More recently, the McMahons distinguished themselves through diplomacy.

In 2023, Staten Island’s Republican leadership chose not to field a candidate against Democrat Michael McMahon for district attorney. Even more remarkably, they cross-endorsed his wife, Judge Judith McMahon, so she would not have an opponent for reelection to the Supreme Court.

Lurthmann derided the pact, saying party bosses decide who the judges and prosecutors will be, rather than the voters. Yet others saw the pragmatic side of it: why subject the public to the costs and uncertainties of elections when both party bosses could agree on McMahons’ reelection in advance?

Luthmann was the problem, not the McMahons.

But why would a Republican parry boss support two Democrats for relection by ensuring no one ran against them>

Well, there are good reasons. Most voters in Staten Island are Republicans, and they might not re-elect two Democrats. But if they had no opponent, they would have to elect the McMahons.

It did not hurt the McMahons at all that the Republican party boss, Michael Tannousis, was McMahon’s top assistant at the DA’s office.

Tounnousis reportedly wants to be judge one day himself.  So he did the right thing. He ensured that no Republican would run against the McMachons. And when the time comes, the Democrats will make sure no one runs against him.

Staten Islanders, who shoulder some of the nation’s highest property taxes, are privileged to underwrite this arrangement. As one maxim puts it, “the pension system is supposed to be for government employees — after they stop working.” The McMahons, however, have shown that the most significant financial reward comes to those who collect both salary and pension.

What’s worse is that but for Luthmann, the McMahons’ double pension, double salaries would have put them over $700,000. His exposing Part N caused Judith’s demotion from administrative judge to a trial judge. it cut both ways- she lost about $50,000 in salalry.

When McMahon Wants a Warrant, Wilkinson Says ‘I Ask for X, I Get It.’

So sure they want to get even. Wouldn’t you?  A recently surfaced recording of NYPD Detective John Wilkinson revealed a level of judicial responsiveness most defendants only dream about.  DA McMahon said he was scared of Luthmann stalking him when Luthmann sent out a Substack email discussing a judge in New Jersey who he said was corrupt.  McMahon fled a criminal complaint as a frightened victim afraid of stalking.

Det. Wilkinson said he could obtain warrants from judges on demand, “I ask for X, I get it. I ask for Z, I get it.”

McMahon swore Luthmann was a “stranger,” despite their history, and that he was afraid, and Wilkinson said in a recorded call that if he wants a warrant, any judge will sign it – for McMahon.

It was almost like the good old days of Part N.

Streamlined Justice: The McMahon–Rodriguez Alliance

Though Judge McMahon was caught by Luthmann and demoted, the McMahons helped arrange for their longtime friend Judge Raymond Rodriguez to be the new administrative judge, who assigns the cases as DA McMahon would have wanted.

Instead of dragging out trials, weighing evidence, and wasting jurors’ afternoons, admirers call it streamlined governance.

He will arrange to sign any warrant against Luthmann that McMahon wants.

Payback is a bitch.

McMahons’ Model of Streamlined Public Service Turns Due Process into a Legacy Plan

People talk about the $675,000 Staten Islanders pay the McMahons annually, but do you realize how much taxpayer money is squandered on adversarial trials when outcomes can be harmonized in advance? That’s a lot more than the meager quadruple checks these public servants collect.

What critics call conflict, the McMahons, Troia, Tannousis, Rodriguez and Wilkinson call coordination. It is crime detererence. When people know the DA and the judges are aligned as one super branch, they will commit their crimes elsewhere.

It is the kind of bold simplification corporations pay consultants millions to invent.

Year after year, the McMahons remind us that public service is not measured in sacrifice, but in sustainability. While ordinary taxpayers fret over mortgages and retirement accounts, the McMahons have demonstrated civic efficiency: where courthouse, pension fund, and political machine align into a seamless support system.

The McMahons have proven that with loyalty, timing, and loyal friends, public service can be the most reliable investment of all.

And all would be well if they could just get Luthmann arrested and when the media reports his arrest, it will be a national story perhaps. The Mcmahon kind of public service should not be limited to just Staten Island. The whole world needs to hear about it.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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