A towering figure in the U.S. federal judicial system with nearly 30 years of service on the bench, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York passed away Wednesday at the age of 92 from natural causes, the court confirmed in an official public statement. His unexpected passing has triggered a procedural reshuffle for one of the most closely scrutinized ongoing criminal cases in the United States: the federal prosecution of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who face formal counts of alleged drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.