US federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was presiding over the long-running drug trafficking case involving former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, has died at the age of 92.
An official at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed Hellerstein’s death on Wednesday. One of the oldest serving federal judges in the United States, Hellerstein had recently drawn attention because of questions surrounding whether he would continue to oversee what was expected to be a lengthy trial involving Maduro.
Throughout a distinguished judicial career, Hellerstein handled several high-profile cases, including civil litigation arising from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He was known for scrutinising settlements and rejecting agreements he considered unfair to victims and claimants.
The veteran jurist also ruled on a number of cases involving former US President Donald Trump. He rejected Trump’s bid to move his New York hush-money case to federal court and, in another decision, blocked the administration’s attempt to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without court hearings.
In 2015, Hellerstein ordered the release of photographs documenting the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, a ruling that attracted significant public attention.
More recently, he oversaw a case in which a jury found that French banking giant BNP Paribas had helped support the Sudanese government of former leader Omar al-Bashir through its business activities. The jury awarded $20.75 million in damages to three Sudanese plaintiffs.
Hellerstein had managed the extensive drug trafficking case linked to Maduro for more than a decade. The case previously led to the conviction of Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Armando Carvajal. Maduro was reportedly captured by US forces in January during a military operation at his compound in Venezuela.
A graduate of Columbia University Law School, Hellerstein served as a lawyer in the US Army from 1957 to 1960 before entering private legal practice. He was appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by then-US President Bill Clinton and went on to become one of the most prominent judges in the Southern District of New York.
His death marks the end of a judicial career spanning decades and involving some of the most consequential legal disputes in modern American history.