In a packed Lower Manhattan federal courtroom with dark wood-paneled walls, Alvin Hellerstein’s voice cut through the silence, as the senior judge addressed the tall man in orange prison garb standing before him.
“Are you Nicolás Maduro?” asked the 92-year-old judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“I am the president of the Republic of Venezuela,” Maduro responded. “I am here kidnapped. I was captured at my home in Caracas.”
Before he could continue, Hellerstein interrupted. “There will be a time and a place for all of that,” the judge said, pressing the proceeding forward. “At this time, I just want to know one thing—are you Nicolás Maduro Moros?”
“I am Nicolás Maduro Moros,” the Venezuelan dictator said.
JNS was present in the courtroom as Hellerstein proceeded with the arraignment, reading the charges against Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, as laid out in the federal indictment.
Maduro is charged with one count of narco-terror conspiracy; one count of conspiracy to import cocaine; a count of possession of machine guns and destructive devices connected to drug trafficking; and a count of conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Throughout the hearing, Maduro appeared calm, jotting notes as the proceedings unfolded. The former Venezuelan first lady, who was seated beside him, appeared more tense.
“I am here to provide a fair trial,” Hellerstein said. “That is my intent.”
‘To do justice to everybody’
Then-President Bill Clinton appointed Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew, to the bench in 1998. He became a senior judge in 2011.
Alan Dershowitz, law professor emeritus at Harvard University, told JNS that he has known Hellerstein for 50 years, “since before he was a judge.”
“He’s a great judge—fair and well-balanced. He’s also a great tennis player, even in his late 80s and early 90s, and a real mensch,” Dershowitz said. “He’s a deeply committed Jew and a deeply principled lawyer.”
“He understands two things from the Bible. Number one, ‘Tzedek, tzedek tirdof,’ you must always seek justice,” Dershowitz told JNS. “And number two, ‘Lo takir panim,’ don’t recognize faces.” (Both quotes come from Deuteronomy 16.)
“The job of the judge is to do justice to everybody, and if I were Maduro, I would be thrilled at the selection of Hellerstein to be my judge,” he said.
Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS that Hellerstein is known for his even-handed judicial style.
“Judge Hellerstein runs a methodical and disciplined courtroom and is known for clear rulings in significant cases, including high-profile ones,” he told JNS. “He is known to not indulge in grandstanding or political showmanship and focuses on the proper application of the law and procedure in building a record for his opinions.”
Maduro’s appearance before an Orthodox Jewish judge carries significance given that the Venezuelan president has espoused antisemitic rhetoric in the past, according to Filitti.
“Courts operate on law and facts, not on the faith of their judges,” he told JNS. “It will be interesting to see how Maduro, who has in the past trafficked in classic antisemitic tropes and blamed ‘international Zionism’ for the hardships his own rule created, responds to being tried before an Orthodox Jewish judge.”
But Maduro is unlikely to invoke Jew-hatred in the courtroom, according to Filitti.
“The structure of a courtroom leaves little room for Maduro to engage in political or antisemitic narratives, especially since procedural and evidentiary rules prohibit grand claims about political persecution, rants about Zionism or other statements that have nothing to do with the elements of the offenses or admissible defenses,” he told JNS.
“Because Maduro is likely to rely on a translator, there is a greater opportunity for him to make extemporaneous comments. But these will likely be struck as irrelevant, and Maduro may be sanctioned,” he added.
