Judge Esther Salas and Mark Anderl were brought together by the law. Now they face ‘unspeakable loss’ – NJ.com

They confront unthinkable tragedy.

Their only child is dead, the victim of an act of senseless violence. His mother, U.S. District Judge Esther Salas — who had apparently been the intended target of the attack, but unharmed — grieves while her husband, criminal defense attorney Mark Anderl, lies in a hospital bed with terrible wounds suffered at the hands of their son’s killer.

“I can’t imagine what they are going through,” said Essex County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly, who worked with Anderl when the attorney served as an assistant prosecutor.

Twenty-year-old Daniel Anderl was fatally shot at his parents’ North Brunswick home Sunday evening after a self-described “mens rights” lawyer with a case before Salas, and an inexplicable grudge against the judge, came to the front door with a FedEx package and a gun, say investigators. He opened fire, leaving the Catholic University student dead and his father critically wounded. The judge was downstairs in the home at the time of the attack.

Investigators are now looking into whether the now-deceased attorney, Roy Den Hollander, may have been targeting at least one other judge in New York. Hollander — who allegedly drove to Sullivan County after the shootings in New Jersey and took his own life — had a photo of that state’s Chief Judge Janet DiFiore in his car, her spokesman told NJ Advance Media.

Those close to Salas and Anderl were left struggling to understand what they called unspeakable heartbreak.

Attorney Joseph Hayden Jr., whose wife, U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden, is a personal friend of Salas, said both are not only highly respected, but beloved in the legal community.

Attorney Henry Klingeman, who has appeared before Salas, met the couple when Salas was a federal public defender and Anderl by then in private practice as a defense attorney.

“I think the world of both them,” he said.

Klingeman called Anderl a “self-effacing lawyer who knows he gets more with honey than vinegar.”

As a judge, he said Salas is known for her “big personality” who takes charge in the courtroom and makes people listen.

That personality was on stage during the high-profile case against Teresa Giudice and her husband Joe, the reality stars of “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” who were facing prison for illegally obtaining millions of dollars in loans and for hiding income and assets in a 2009 bankruptcy filing.

At a sentencing hearing in her fifth floor courtroom in Newark, Salas clearly showed her frustration over whether the celebrity couple had come clean about their finances, after probation officers spotted four ATV’s on their property that the couple hadn’t told them about, as well as Corvette valued at $15,000, and the failure of Teresa Giudice failed to list any of her costume jewelry as an asset.

“I don’t own a lot of jewelry,” remarked the judge. “But I know what I have.”

Attorney Miles Feinstein, who represented Joe Giudice, said Salas always lived up to her responsibility.

“She is one of the judges we would want to appear before,” Feinstein said.

More recently, Salas was assigned the case over an ongoing lawsuit brought by Deutsche Bank investors who claim the company made false and misleading statements about its anti-money laundering policies and failed to monitor “high-risk” customers, including Jeffrey Epstein.

A first-generation attorney and the daughter of immigrants, Salas was born in California and grew up in Union City. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a law degree from Rutgers School of Law.

In an interview with The Star-Ledger after her nomination as a federal judge, Salas — the youngest of five, said her mother had always instilled the importance of education in her children.

When a fire destroyed the family’s home, the family lost everything. But she recalled as 10-year-old negotiating with a welfare worker, worried that her mother, a Cuban immigrant, might be slighted or misunderstood. It was an episode she pointed to as a spark in her interest in social justice and law that would stay with her long into her career.

She met Anderl, who she would later marry, as a second-year law school intern at the Essex County Prosecutor’s office. She would spend nearly a decade as public defender in the federal courts before she was selected as New Jersey’s first Latino federal magistrate judge, and then a U.S. District Court judge.

Anderl, a graduate of Northeastern University who got his law degree at Brooklyn Law School, stayed on the other side of the bench.

When Fennelly came to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office as an assistant prosecutor, Andrel was already there and a major figure in the homicide unit.

“He was someone known as a good trial attorney and always willing to mentor younger prosecutors,” Fennelly said. “He was a good guy who looked out for everyone — the go-to guy who was someone you would seek out for advice.”

Anderl ultimately left the prosecutor’s office to go into private practice, often handling criminal defense work in cases that frequently made news.

“Mark is an old school criminal lawyer,” said attorney Steven D. Altman of New Brunswick, who knows him well. “Sometimes clients, when you don’t tell them what they want to hear, they think you’re working for the other side. Mark is not that way. He’s straight and honest. He never talks down to people. He’s extremely well respected in the system.”

A passionate New York Mets fan who friends said would see nothing wrong with going to all 162 games in a season if he could, Anderl was also known for just as vigorously defending those he represented.

“He didn’t have a problem speaking his mind when he thought his client was being wronged,” said Joseph Mazraani, a Middlesex County attorney.

They were both devoted to their son, those who know them say. Salas talked of spending weekends with her husband watching their son as a youngster pitch for his traveling baseball team. A friend said she cried for a week when Daniel went away to college in Washington, D.C.

He had just turned 20 this past week, the friend said.

Anderl’s law partner, David R. Oakley, said he is broken-hearted at the loss of the couple’s son, and asked for prayers.

“The death of Daniel Anderl, who was only 20 years old, is an unspeakable loss — to his family, to his friends, to me personally, and to the wider community,” he said. “Daniel was planning to follow his mother and father into a career in law. He cared about justice, just as his parents do, because he cared about people.”

Oakley said it lies beyond anyone’s power to understand why the murder of Daniel, who was named as his godson, was allowed to happen.

“It is, however, within our power to honor his memory by re-dedicating ourselves to the ideals he stood for and, with God’s help, working tirelessly for the noble goals he had hoped to devote his life to serving,” Oakley said.

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Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.