11 Facts About Dora Irizarry

Dora Lizette Irizarry was born on January 26,1955 and is a senior United States District Court Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Dora Irizarry attended the Bronx High School of Science and went on to graduate from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 and Columbia Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1979.

Dora Irizarry said she wanted to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods in which she grew up, and specialized in drug and narcotics cases.

Dora Irizarry was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a state judge in New York.

Dora Irizarry was an assistant district attorney of the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in the Bronx County District Attorney's Office from 1981 to 1987 and then in the New York County District Attorney's Office from 1987 to 1995.

Dora Irizarry then became a judge on the New York City Criminal Court from 1995 to 1997, and an Acting Justice on the Court of Claims in Kings County from 1997 to 1998, before serving in the same position in Manhattan from 1998 to 2002.

In 2002, Dora Irizarry resigned from her judgeship to become the Republican nominee for Attorney General of New York, challenging Democratic incumbent Eliot Spitzer.

Dora Irizarry was the first Latina to seek statewide office in New York State.

In 2003, Irizarry was nominated by President George W Bush to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Dora Irizarry became Chief Judge of the Eastern District on April 15,2016.

Dora Irizarry sentenced Defreitas to life in prison on February 17,2011.