Alvin K. Hellerstein, a senior federal judge in Manhattan who oversaw the sprawling civil litigation arising from the Sept. 11 attacks and the prosecution of the captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, has died at 92.
His death was confirmed by Ed Friedland, the district executive for the Southern District of New York, where Judge Hellerstein had served for nearly three decades. Mr. Maduro’s case, along with the others Judge Hellerstein was handling, will be randomly assigned to different judges in Manhattan.
President Bill Clinton appointed Judge Hellerstein in 1998. A deeply religious Orthodox Jew, the judge was known to hold sentencings on Fridays so he could reflect on his decisions over the Sabbath.
Judge Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York recalled Judge Hellerstein as a “conscientious, caring” judge, who was “very much committed to referencing the Bible and philosophy of Judaism.” He considered the judge a friend.
Former clerks, defense lawyers and former prosecutors have described him as personable and empathetic, with a tendency to issue rulings that reflected a common-sense understanding of the law. At times during trials, he would sometimes take over the questioning of witnesses from prosecutors, to speed up proceedings.
In a hearing earlier this month, Judge Hellerstein oversaw the appearance of Cilia Flores, the wife of Mr. Maduro, who has also been accused of narco-trafficking, torturing their own people and more charges. Judge Hellerstein denied Ms. Flores’s release from jail pending trial.
“Jail is not a nice place to be,” Judge Hellerstein said. “But these are serious allegations.”
Judge Hellerstein’s best-known case may have been the extensive civil litigation that came out of the Sept. 11 attacks. The case was profoundly personal for Judge Hellerstein, who as a lawyer in private practice represented the firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 of its employees during the attack on the World Trade Center.
The families of some Sept. 11 victims had wanted a trial, in which the airlines would be compelled to reveal how their policies may have enabled the hijackers to board the planes.
The parties reached confidential settlements, preventing such a trial. In an interview with The New York Times, Judge Hellerstein acknowledged that the public could have known more about the airlines’ failures.
“But it pales in my mind,” he said, “with the fact that the people who were suing for money got their money.”
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