HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Retired U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns, the first woman to serve on the federal bench in Connecticut who was widely admired as apioneer and role model, has died. She was 95. Her son, Joseph Burns, says she died Monday at a hospital in New Haven after abrief illness. President Jimmy Carter nominated Burns for a federal judgeship in Connecticut in 1978 and she was confirmed by the Senate, after having served as the first female state Superior Court judge in Connecticut. She served nearly four decades on the federal bench, including as chief judge of the federal courts in Connecticut, until her retirement in 2015. Burns presided over many prominent criminal cases, including ones involving mobsters and Hells Angels.
No funeral plans have been announced.
(© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
