A . Jay Cristol Ahron Jay Cristol ( born September 29 , 1929 ) is the chief judge of the Florida bankruptcy court , a lecturer in law of naval warfare , and a former U . S . Navy aviator and lawyer ( JAG ) . Military career . In November 1951 , during the Korean war , Cristol joined the US Navy . He flew day and night missions on the Grumman AF Guardian . In 1958 , Cristol received his B . A degree from the University of Miami . In 1959 , he received his J . D . degree from the University of Miami School of Law He graduated from Naval Justice School and served as a Judge Advocate General Corps Navy lawyer ( JAG ) for another twenty years . In 1983 , Cristol was appointed an honorary professor of the Naval Justice School . During the 1980s , he was sent to the International Institute of Humanitarian Law at Sanremo to lecture on Law of Naval warfare . Civilian career . After retiring in 1988 , Cristol became a civil lawyer , and served as Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida . In 1985 , he was appointed chief U . S . bankruptcy judge of the Southern District of Florida . He also became an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law , teaching Reorganization in Bankruptcy . He enrolled in the Graduate School of International Studies of that institution , where he spent ten years researching the USS Liberty incident of 8 June 1967 . In 1997 , he earned a Ph . D . degree on this work . In his Ph . D . thesis , Cristol analyzed the official investigations of the Liberty incident and conducted 458 interviews . Freedom of Information Act requests were used to obtain declassification of the Clark Clifford Report , 22 hot line messages , 22 National Security Agency documents and 31 National Security Council documents . Cristol was also able to obtain classified Israeli documents . The conclusion of the thesis confirmed the official investigations and demonstrated that the attack on the USS Liberty was a mistake . Following completion of the thesis , Cristol sued the National Security Agency under the Freedom of Information Act and in 2004 , the agency released audio tapes collected by an NSA unit aboard a Navy Lockheed EC - 121 Warning Star aircraft flying near the scene of the USS Liberty attack . Subsequently , he published a book about the Liberty incident , " The Liberty Incident : The 1967 Attack on the U . S . Navy Spy Ship " . Cristol said the tapes show the attack was an accident , and that the Israelis mistook the ship for an Egyptian one . In 2007 , Judge Cristol awarded the rights of O . J . Simpson ' s book " If I Did It " to the family of Ronald Goldman to satisfy a $ 38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson . Awards and honors . During his navy service , Cristol received the Meritorious Service Medal , the Navy Commendation Medal , and the Navy Achievement Medal . In 1998 , Pan Am sold to Guilford Transportation , in a transaction which removed Pan Am from bankruptcy . Consequently the company honored Cristol , who presided over the speedy reorganization , by naming one of their 727 - 225 aircraft , ( Registration number N361PA ) , the Clipper A . Jay Cristol . After presiding over the reorganization of Arrow Air , he was honored by having an Arrow Air Douglas DC - 8 - 62 ( Reg . N8968U ) named the " Judge A . Jay Cristol . " Cristol is a founding member of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola , Florida and a founding member and historian of the Wings Over Miami aircraft museum in Miami . In 2003 , the Greater Miami Aviation Association honored Cristol with their Glenn Curtiss Award which recognizes the contributions of an individual to improve the South Florida community . On February 1 , 2007 , St . Thomas University School of Law honored Cristol with its Outstanding Jurist Award .