Manhattan Judge Hellerstein Dies at 92
The jurist handled high-profile cases involving Trump, Maduro, and 9/11 victims until shortly before his death.
By Natalia Costa ·
Alvin K. Hellerstein died Wednesday morning at age 92. He had served as a federal judge in Manhattan for nearly 30 years.
Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain confirmed the death in a statement. She noted that Hellerstein was surrounded by family when he passed. His funeral is scheduled for Thursday at Riverside Memorial Chapel in Manhattan.
Hellerstein remained active on the bench until just before his death. Two weeks prior, he presided over the arraignment of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. They faced added torture charges in a narco-terrorism conspiracy case.
Maduro was captured in January during a US military raid in Caracas. He twice refused to enter a plea during earlier proceedings. Hellerstein eventually intervened himself, stating that a plea of not guilty would be entered on his behalf. At a bail hearing for Flores on October 8, the judge coughed and struggled to speak. He told lawyers he had a voice problem but would keep going as long as they could hear him. He scheduled their trial for June next year.
Hellerstein’s docket included several other major cases. In August, he rejected President Trump’s third attempt to move his hush money conviction to federal court. Trump sought dismissal based on presidential immunity. Hellerstein wrote that paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, a $130,000 payoff, did not fall under that immunity. In 2020, he freed Michael Cohen from prison after ruling that the Justice Department’s revocation of home confinement was a First Amendment violation.
His most enduring legacy stems from the post-9/11 litigation. He oversaw dozens of wrongful death and injury lawsuits for two decades. In March 2010, he rejected a proposed settlement of at least $575 million for people who fell ill from toxic ash. He told a reporter that most settlements are private, but this case was different because it involved the World Trade Center attacks. In 2008, he ended a legal effort to force New York City to continue searching for human remains at a Staten Island landfill.
A Columbia Law School graduate and Army veteran, Hellerstein was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1998. He maintained a heavy caseload even after moving to senior status in 2011. He also presided over the trials of Charlie Javice and Bill Hwang, and a civil case where BNP Paribas was ordered to pay nearly $21 million to the Sudanese government’s victims. Judge Analisa Torres will now take over the Maduro case.
