SELLER: Jeanine Pirro
LOCATION: Rye, NY
PRICE: $4,750,000
SIZE: 7,882 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 4 half bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: The Rye, NY, home of hard-charging former prosecutor and judge turned outspoken legal analyst and politically conservative television personality Jeanine Pirro — she once presided over a short-lived reality courtroom program (“Judge Jeanine Pirro”) and currently hosts the reality legal show “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News Channel — has been re-listed with a reduced asking price of $4.75 million after popping up for sale almost a year ago at $4,995,000. The brick-based two-story quasi-Italianate villa was custom built in 1989 by Ms. Pirro and her ex-husband, Albert Pirro Jr., a once high-flying real estate attorney and lobbyist who did almost a year in the pokey after he was convicted in 2000 on dozens of counts of conspiracy and tax fraud. The Pirros’ Rye residence loomed large in his trial as he was busted, in part, for claiming as business expenses clearly not business related expenses such as $45,000 electronic driveway gates, several luxury cars including a Ferrari, and salaries for domestic staff who baby-sat the Pirro children and transported the family’s pet Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs to the vet. The former couple remained married during Mister Pirro’s incarceration and split up in late 2007 but didn’t finalize their divorce until late 2013.
According to listing details the house has been extensively and expensively updated in recent years, with a new roof, six new air conditioning condensers and many other pricy capital improvements but for the most part still looks to this property gossip like it was preserved in late 1980s decorative amber. Positioned at the end of a tiny cul-de-sac on 1.49 gated and landscaped acres just a few blocks from the fancy-pants Westchester Country Club, the house measures in at 7,882-square-feet with five bedrooms and five full and four half bathrooms. Striated beige marble floors run throughout interconnected living and entertaining spaces that include a double-height foyer with curved floating staircase and mahogany wet bar, step down double-height lounge ringed with slender beige marble columns, formal sitting area with intricately carved fireplace, and a formal dining room that opens through double French doors to the backyard. The kitchen was remodeled 2013 according to marketing materials and features polished granite floor tiles, blue marble counter tops and back splashes, white custom cabinetry with Gothic-style glass-fronted upper cabinets, center island with three-stool snack counter, a full array of high-grade stainless steel appliances, and a hand-hammered copper hood over the range. The adjoining breakfast area has a built-in break front with more Gothic-style glass doors. There’s also a den/family room and a cherry wood-paneled library/study with built-in bookcases and a green, carved marble fireplace.
Three guest/family bedrooms share the upper floor with a sprawling master suite that includes a sky-lit sitting area with built-in cushioned bench seating and French doors to a private terrace. The master bathroom has fossilized marble floors and there are two walk-in closets, one lavishly appointed with a hair and make-up station, private powder room, and dedicated closet for evening gowns. There is garage parking for half of a dozen cars and the fully finished basement level provides a fifth en suite bedroom suitable for live-in staff as well as a combination recreation room/gym with wet bar, 850-bottle temperature controlled wine cellar, gift-wrapping room, and three cedar closets for off-season clothing storage. Outdoor living and entertaining spaces include a brick loggia that overlooks a lush lawn, heated swimming pool and spa surrounded by loads of blue stone terracing, a cabana with bathroom and wet bar, and a something described in marketing materials and a “playhouse/cigar house.”
The Pirro property is currently represented by Wendy Alper at Julie B. Bee Sotheby’s International Realty.
A brief and not exactly forensic parse of property records shows Ms. Pirro additionally owns four contiguous and undeveloped residential parcels in Port Charlotte, FL, just south of Sarasota, along with a 3,274-square-foot residence in a gated golf course community in West Palm Beach, FL, that she and her ex-con ex-husband picked up in 1995 for $315,000 and unsuccessfully attempted to sell in 2007 with an asking price of $795,000.
Listing photos: Julie B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty
