U.S. District Senior Judge William Walls of the District of New Jersey, who presided over the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, has died at the age of 86.

Walls, who died July 11, was the first African American male to serve on New Jersey’s federal court. Walls served as a municipal judge in Newark and a state judge in Essex County before President Bill Clinton nominated him to U.S. district court in 1994. He went on senior status in 2005 but continued to hear cases until shortly before his death.