Juan Merchan

Juan Manuel Merchan (born 1962/1963) is an American judge and former prosecutor currently serving as an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County (Manhattan). He is judge for the 2024 criminal trial of former US president, Donald Trump.

Early life and education

Merchan was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He immigrated to New York City when he was six years old, growing up in Jackson Heights, Queens, as the youngest of six children. His father had been a military officer in Colombia. Merchan studied business at Baruch College in Manhattan, graduating in 1990, and earned his Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law on Long Island in 1994. He was the first member of his family to go to college.

Career as prosecutor

In 1994, Merchan began his career as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. He worked in both the office's Trial Division and its Investigations Division, prosecuting financial frauds and other cases. From 1999 to 2006, he worked for the New York State Attorney General's office, first as Deputy Attorney General in-Charge, Nassau County Region (1999–2001), then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge of Affirmative Litigation for Nassau and Suffolk Counties (2003–2006), and then as Assistant Attorney General in-Charge Nassau County Region (2003–2006).

Career as judge

Merchan became a judge in 2006, when New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed him to the New York City Family Court, Bronx County. He remained in that role until 2009.

Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau appointed Merchan as an Acting Justice in the Supreme Court of New York, New York County, Criminal, in 2009, and he has served on in that position since that time. In this position, Merchan presides over felony criminal trials.

Merchan also previously served concurrently as a judge of the New York Court of Claims, being appointed to that role by Governor David Paterson in 2009 and serving until 2018.

Notable cases

In 2011, Merchan presided over the case of a New York Police Department sergeant William Eiseman, who admitted to conducting illegal searches and then lying about his actions in court. Eiseman pleaded guilty to first-degree perjury and official misconduct, and Merchan sentenced him to 24 days in jail; Eiseman also forfeited his pension.

In 2012, Merchan presided over the criminal proceedings against Anna Gristina, who was charged with operating an upscale prostitution ring on the Upper East Side. Gristina and a co-defendant had been arrested in February 2012, after an investigation by the Manhattan DA's office. Merchan set bail at a $2 million bond, or $1 million cash; because Gristina was unable to meet this amount, she was detained at Rikers Island jail for four months. The Appellate Division lowered Gristina's bail to $250,000 bond or $125,000 cash, on condition that she give up her passport and be electronically monitored. The suburban-dwelling defendant—nicknamed the "Soccer Mom Madam"—ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of promoting prostitution, and Merchan sentenced her to six months in jail, which amounted to time already served due to the four months Gristina had spent at Rikers before being bailed.

In late 2022, Merchan oversaw the five-week criminal trial of the Trump Organization; the organization was convicted of 17 counts of tax fraud.

He also presided over the criminal case of Donald Trump's former financial chief Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to his role in a 15-year-long tax-fraud scheme. Weisselberg admitted to evading taxes by accepting $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation and entered a plea agreement, in which he testified against The Trump Organization and helped to secure the company's conviction. Merchan sentenced Weisselberg to five months at Rikers Island and said he would have imposed a substantially longer sentence but for the plea agreement.

Merchan is the judge assigned to preside over the criminal trial of Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who was indicted in September 2022 on charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with a fundraising scheme. The case is set for trial in May 2024.

On April 4, 2023, Merchan oversaw the arraignment of former U.S. president Donald Trump on 34 felony counts. The indictment of Trump was delivered by a grand jury on March 30. It was then unsealed the same day, with Trump pleading not guilty.

See also

* List of Hispanic and Latino American jurists

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merchan, Juan
1960s births
21st-century American judges
Baruch College alumni
Colombian emigrants to the United States
Hispanic and Latino American judges
Hofstra University alumni
Lawyers from Queens, New York
Living people
Maurice A. Deane School of Law alumni
New York County Assistant District Attorneys
New York Supreme Court Justices
People from Bogotá