William M. Erlbaum

The Honorable William M. Erlbaum (retired), a distinguished justice, loving husband, father and grandfather, died peacefully in his sleep on March 20, 2026. He was 89.

In his career, Bill was driven by a deep sense of fairness and an obligation to protect the vulnerable. In life, he combined warmth and eloquence with a sharp wit and mischievous laugh. He was a life-long lover of books, newspapers and learning. He was affable, engaging and effortlessly connected with people from all walks of life. "We're all brothers and sisters," he would often say.

Above all, he was humble. While presiding over the assault trial of State Senator Hiram Monserrate in 2009, he described himself to the New York Times as "just another old man."

But he was so much more.

Bill was inspired to pursue a career in law by his father, Isaac Erlbaum, who died in 2006 at 102. Isaac, who emigrated from Romania, owned an auto parts store in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

Isaac took his son, then 15, to court to dispute tickets he received for opening his store early on Sundays, a violation of "blue laws," which prohibited commerce on Sundays. Though Isaac had no formal education, he elected to defend himself.

"He argued that it [blue laws] violated the separation of church and state," Bill was quoted as saying in his father's obituary in Newsday.

Isaac lost the case, paid his fine, and Bill's passion for battling injustice was born.

"Here's a place you can stand on equal footing and fight the government. All because I was an angry 15-year-old, I played hooky a lot and went to court and watched lawyers," he told Newsday.

Born on August 19, 1936, in Brooklyn, Bill was on the debate team and received his B.A. in Sociology at Brooklyn College. He then earned his masters degree from the University of Connecticut and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. He taught at York College and was an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. He also served as the president of the Criminal Courts Bar Association in Queens.

During his work as an attorney, he was the defense lawyer in the retrial of Alice Crimmins, a Queens woman accused of murdering her two children. "We convinced everyone in that courtroom of her innocence except the 12 people on the jury," he would say to the New York Times.

He was appointed a Criminal Court judge by Mayor Ed Koch in 1979. He was elected to the Queens County Supreme Court in 2005.

Bill was known for taking on difficult cases and had a reputation for being tough on abusers. He clashed with Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau after ruling that two women charged with prostitution were entitled to a jury trial.

Bill was married for 54 years to Carol Crawford, who passed away on Sept. 17, 2025. The couple met in New York City and were married in Burlington, Vermont, in 1971. They raised four children while living in their home in Forest Hills, Queens.

Bill is survived by his four children, Jesse Erlbaum, Caitlin Winnicki, David Erlbaum and Julia Erlbaum, sons-in-law, Hank Winnicki and Ernie Baske, daughters-in-law Casey Martinez and Melanie Erlbaum, his six grandchildren, Helene Erlbaum, Jack Erlbaum, Vaughan Winnicki, Sydney Erlbaum, Maya Erlbaum and Madeline Baske, sister-in-law Patricia Berg, nephew Benjamin Haag (Jaime Willis) and nieces Robin Berg and Sonje Berg.