Florida- Jason Morse Berkman, the former Miami Beach municipal judge who 35 years ago ruled the pornographic blockbuster Deep Throat, www.xxxdeepthroat.com too obscene for Dade County, died July 27 at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He was 86 and had been afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.
Known as a compassionate peacemaker and an even-tempered optimist, the Boston native began practicing law in South Florida after graduating from the University of Florida law school in 1948.
In private practice with various permutations of the firm Dubbin, Berkman, Bloom & Karan, Berkman was a labor/management arbitrator and a pioneer in divorce mediation.
For over a half-century, he served as a Miami Beach justice of the peace, a municipal court judge, and a special master.
It was in his capacity as municipal judge that Berkman, escorted by armed officers, viewed Deep Throat, the Miami-made porn classic, at the Sheridan Theater.
He declared it lacking in redeeming social value, and fined the exhibitor $500.
Daughter Bari Berkman, a San Diego lawyer, said her father ”didn’t have strong feelings about it [and] thought the whole thing was sort of ridiculous.” But he ruled according to the law.
A World War II combat veteran, Berkman served with U.S. Army’s 8th Air Force, flying 58 missions over Europe as a bombardier.
His unit won the Presidential Unit Citation, given for ”extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy on or after Dec. 7, 1941,” when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Lt. Berkman individually earned the Air Medal and a Purple Heart.
Miami-Dade County Court Judge Amy Karan, a former law partner, remembered Berkman as ”so happy, so mellow. A settler” of cases. ”If you wanted a fighter, you went somewhere else,” she said. “Jason was such a loving soul. All the judges and lawyers loved him.”
In bursts of whimsy, Berkman might hop up on his desk with a cigar and sway to The Mills Brothers or Mack the Knife, Karan said.
WACKY STORIES
At his funeral Tuesday, friends chuckled over classic Berkman stories, such as the case of the stripping spectator.
In 1966, a man in the front row of Berkman’s court began to disrobe, ignoring the judge’s demands that he stop. He dropped his pants and bolted up the aisle — as women shrieked — before a constable grabbed him.
”Someday I will write a book,” Berkman vowed in the aftermath.
Had he done so, he probably would have included the 1962 incident in which an elderly civil defendant became so distraught over an $11 judgment that Berkman withdrew his order and paid the plaintiff himself.
”If someone was poor who came before him, he’d reach into his own pocket,” said Barbara Berkman, his wife of 56 years. “He had so much empathy for the elderly.”
TROUBLING YEAR
In 1972, two near-tragedies befell the Berkman family. A fire heavily damaged their Pinetree Drive home that June, destroying a fortune in art and antiques and nearly killing his wife and children.
Then, on New Year’s Eve, he and his wife were accosted by three armed robbers at the same home. Having already tied up Bari and her boyfriend, the gunmen bound the Berkmans with venetian-blind cord.
They stole credits cards and $1,500 in cash and jewelry. ”They slapped me around some,” Berkman told The Miami Herald.
Federal Magistrate Judge Barry L. Garber clerked for Berkman at the firm Dubbin Blatt & Schiff, and called him “a wonderful mentor. . . He was handed a lot of dissolution cases. He was very sensitive to human problems, which made him a good lawyer for that field.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, Jason Berkman is survived by son David Berkman of Miami.