Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein Dies at 92
publishers 13articles 13first reported 28 Oct, 17:00 UTCdeveloping since 28 Oct · 5 editions
Alvin K. Hellerstein, the longtime Manhattan federal judge who presided over cases involving Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump and the Sept. 11 attacks, died Wednesday at age 92, according to Edward Friedland, district executive for the Southern District of New York. A cause of death was not immediately announced.
Hellerstein had recently been overseeing the federal narco-terrorism conspiracy prosecution of Maduro, the former Venezuelan president. He presided over a hearing in the case two weeks before his death. The case and Hellerstein’s other pending matters are expected to be reassigned.
Appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1998, Hellerstein became a senior judge in 2011 and continued hearing cases. Before joining the court, he served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps and worked as a Manhattan litigator.
Hellerstein spent two decades handling wrongful-death, injury and property-damage litigation arising from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. His later cases included Trump’s repeated attempts to move his New York hush-money prosecution to federal court. In August, Hellerstein again rejected Trump’s bid to transfer the case and dismiss it on presidential-immunity grounds.
In 2020, Hellerstein ordered Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, released from prison after finding that the government had returned him to custody in retaliation for plans to publish a book and speak to the media.
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Written from 7 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written within the hour the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- This version written
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