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QUEENS — Richard Brown remembers the arraignment of the “Son of Sam” as though it were yesterday.

“He looked nothing like anyone imagined,” said Brown, who was the arraignment court judge in Brooklyn back on Aug. 11, 1977 when David Berkowitz was arrested.

“We chose the largest courtroom,” said Brown, who is now the Queens District Attorney, on the 39th anniversary of the arraignment. “It was packed to the rafters, a lot of press, families of victims and just ordinary people who wanted to get a look, with more people lined up outside trying to get in.”

Only hours earlier, the decision was made to arraign the “monster," who had terrorized the city, in Brooklyn, where he committed his final murder, killing Stacey Moskowitz and wounding her date, Robert Violante.

Berkowitz had been captured, thanks to a parking summons he received near the crime scene, and was taken from his Yonkers home to NYPD Headquarters in lower Manhattan. With a crush of reporters outside, he was brought to the Chief of Detectives office on the 13th floor, where Detective Sgt. Joseph Coffey, a supervisor on the “Son of Sam Task Force,” was waiting to grill him.

Like hundreds of detectives, Coffey, who years later would arrest mob bosses John Gotti and Paul Castellano, had spent several frustrating months being taunted by “Sam” while working around-the-clock trying to stop him.

The rugged, 6-foot-4 sergeant could barely contain his impulse to grab the accused killer by his neck and hurl him out the window, he told me years ago.

“But then, Berkowitz started talking, how he had gotten his orders to kill people from his neighbor’s dog, and as I listened to him, my anger began to disappear, and I almost started to feel sorry for him," said the legendary sergeant who passed away last year.

"He was just a pathetic, limp, wet noodle.”

Within hours, Berkowitz was driven out to Brooklyn where Brown had been tasked to handle the arraignment.

“I had just finished night court and was heading home when I received the call to come back," Brown said.

Among the people in the court was Moskowitz’s mother, and she was wailing in sorrow. Suddenly, she started “screaming at the top of her lungs” when word came that her daughter’s killer was about to be brought into the court, Brown said.

“You could cut the tension with a knife," Brown said, recalling how the court suddenly "fell to a hush" as a side door swung open, and the “Son of Sam,” responsible for executing six people and wounding seven more, came into view.

For a second, Brown thought about his two daughters who, like millions of other New Yorkers, had altered their lives and stayed home at night during the “Son of Sam” killing spree.

“And now Berkowitz was in front of me, in court, and he could not look further away from what you would imagine the serial killer to be,” he said.

The pudgy, baby-faced postal worker was surrounded by six detectives, and a phalanx of two dozen court officers ringed the front of the court, separating him from his victims’ families and other spectators.

When the bailiff started to call: “Docket K—739287, David Berkowitz,” Brown said, “you could literally hear a pin drop.”

Brown then began the proceeding that would bring the man responsible for the greatest murder spree in New York history to justice.

“You, sir, are David R. Berkowitz?” Brown asked, according to a court transcript.

“Yes, sir,” Berkowitz softly replied.

“You are charged, Mr. Berkowitz, with ... murder in the second degree; attempted murder in the second degree; assault in the first degree; and criminal possession of a weapon.’

“On July 31st, 1977, at 2:42 a.m., at Shore Parkway, two hundred feet east of a foot bridge in Kings County, you ... did, with a .44 caliber revolver, Charter Arms, shoot and kill Stacey Moskowitz (and) with the same .44 caliber revolver, did shoot and seriously injure Robert Violante, to wit: blindness of one eye and possible blindness of the other,” Brown said, reading from an affidavit filed by Homicide Detective John Falotico.

Berkowitz remained silent as the charges were read.

After several minutes of legal discussions, Berkowitz’ lawyer and Brown agreed that the so-called "Son of Sam" be remanded to Kings County Hospital for psychiatric evaluation, and kept there in protective custody away from any other patients.

Brown then remanded Berkowitz without bail and the suspect, who was also known as the .44 Caliber Killer, was led through a right side door.

“There seemed to be a palpable sigh of relief," Brown recalled.

One of the “Son of Sam" murders occurred near Brown's home in Forest Hills. He said the streets became as quiet as a morgue after that.

"I remember it vividly, the homicide was 10 blocks from me, and after that no one would go out at night," Brown said. "There was no one on the streets."

As he neared his house following the arraignment, the judge was struck by the immediate change following Berkowitz's capture.

"For the first time in months," he said, "Forest Hills was teeming with people."

Son of Sam Arraignment Minutes