The press went pretty light on him looks like to me. If they were looking for a stink {after da Bush's} they could have mentioned who appointed him to the bench.
The Globe mentions his appointment:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/10/22/new_haven_police_mourn_officers_death_after_being_struck_by_suv/
The driver of the SUV that hit Picagli is John M. Walker Jr., a senior judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, who lives in Connecticut and maintains court chambers in New Haven. He was leaving work when the accident occurred, police said.
Walker, a 1962 Yale graduate, was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan in 1985. He was appointed to the 2nd Circuit in 1989 by his cousin, former President George H.W. Bush.
To know he was a cousin, this author knew his name. There was no reason to not mention it in the article other than to try to make a tie, no matter how tenuous, to current President Bush. Since the current president is the one the leftist press wants to hurt, it would probably make more sense to them to just mention "Bush" instead of trying to make an indirect tie through his father, former President Bush.