Judge overseeing Nicolás Maduro case allegedly fell asleep during Charlie Javice trial

The 92-year-old federal choose who’s presiding over the historic narcoterrorism case against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro was beforehand accused of falling asleep during another major trial, raising issues about his ability to deal with one of the most complicated prosecutions ever introduced in Manhattan federal court docket.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein appeared to nod off on the bench during dense testimony in the Charlie Javice fraud case, her protection attorneys acknowledged after she was convicted in September.

The episode undermines confidence in the equity of the proceedings, the attorneys wrote in a November post-conviction movement.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, is now assigned to supervise the sweeping narcoterrorism prosecution of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro as questions swirl over his conduct in a prior federal trial. Hellerstein is pictured in 2010. Christopher Sadowski

Javice, the founder of pupil financial-aid startup Frank, was sentenced to seven years in jail after she was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by vastly inflating the company’s consumer numbers ahead of its 2021 sale to the bank.

The trial featured dense testimony about data analytics, buyer metrics and due diligence, with jurors listening to from JPMorgan executives and out of doors advisers about how the bank relied on Frank’s purported user database in approving the acquisition.

The nonagenarian choose in the end sentenced Javice to seven years in prison, though her attorneys later moved to overturn the verdict, citing alleged judicial lapses and conflicts that surfaced only after sentencing.

According to a February report in the online news site ArtVoice, Hellerstein appeared to nod off during the second day of testimony as prosecutors walked the jury by distinctions involving Frank’s data.

Ex-CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin pointed to the sleeping allegation as proof that Hellerstein is no longer match to preside over a case of huge consequence.

In a New York Times op-ed, Toobin warned the jurist is solely “too old” to deal with a prosecution of such global consequence.

Nicolás Maduro, the deposed president of Venezuela, is about to stand trial in Manhattan. GC Images

Hellerstein’s superior age has raised questions about his fitness to supervise the Maduro case. AFP through Getty Images

Toobin, who was forced out of CNN after a 2020 incident through which he was caught masturbating during a Zoom call with colleagues, argued that Hellerstein ought to step except for the Maduro case as a consequence of his superior age and alleged lapses during court docket proceedings.

In the piece, Toobin wrote that “92 is 92 — and counting.”

The legal maven argued that the Maduro prosecution is so sprawling and unprecedented that it will be “a disservice to himself, to the parties in court, and to the cause of justice in America” for Hellerstein to stay on the case, particularly given studies that the choose “was sleeping, at times, during the proceedings” in the Javice trial.

“The best way for him to honor the system to which he has devoted decades of his life would be to withdraw from the case,” Toobin wrote, including that Hellerstein is “simply too old, in my view, to preside over a matter of this magnitude.”

Charlie Javice, founder of student-aid startup Frank, was sentenced to seven years in jail after prosecutors said she defrauded JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by inflating her company’s consumer numbers. REUTERS

The op-ed got here after Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, had been arraigned in Manhattan federal court docket, the place each pleaded not guilty to sweeping drug trafficking and narco-terrorism expenses — a routine course of that Toobin famous might be adopted by months of complicated pretrial litigation and a trial unlikely to start until not less than 2027.

In subsequent hearings, Hellerstein might be required to “decide a host of complex and even never-before-seen issues, including Mr. Maduro’s potential immunity as a head of state, the legality of the seizure of the two defendants in Venezuela, and the state of their health and ability to stand trial,” Toobin wrote.

By the time the Maduro trial begins in earnest, Hellerstein, who was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Bill Clinton in 1998, might be 93.

“The trial itself will then last many months, with the judge called upon to decide additional highly consequential issues under enormous public scrutiny,” Toobin wrote.

The Post has sought remark from Manhattan federal court docket.

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