Legislator Details
Vital Records Information:
Marital Information:
Number of Children: 0
Background
Education:
JD, Detroit College of Law; holds honorary doctor of law degree
Biographical Sketch:
Adopted son of James and Mary Cohen and named James Cohen, jr. on September 5, 1925. He changed it to DelRio when the family moved to Dearborn. In 1953 he went into real estate and became a successful salesman. He was part of the civil rights movement, marching with Martin Luther King on Woodward Avenue in 1963. He was elected as a Detroit Recorders judge in 1972 and served until removed by the Supreme Court in 1977, for inappropriate behavior [23 counts of judicial misconduct, including improper use of judicial office for friends and bragging about sexual prowess]. He denied the charges. He returned to real estate. He moved to California after his removal, settling in La Jolla in the mid-1980s. Served as a labor relations consultant; retired corporate president; member advisory board, FDA; Mayor's Committee on Commercial and Industrial Development; Michigan Industrial Ambassador; financial consultant, Trade Commission and U.S Dept of Commerce; member of New Bethel Baptist Church and trustee; member and president of Michigan Council for Political Education (the Black Caucus); Wolverine Law Students Association; Cotillion Club; member of the NAACP, Urban League.
Notable Facts:
He was found as an infant, abandoned in a garbage can in Detroit. He caused an incident when a gun he was carrying fell out of his pocket on the House floor. He was arrested during the 1967 Detroit unrest when he interfered with the arrest of a suspected looter. Died in California; body donated to science, then cremated. May be the inspiration for a character in Elmore Leonard's "City Primeval."