Trump Judge Has Had Some Dramatic Cases, Like ‘Soccer Mom Madam’
- Juan Merchan gets DA’s tax case against Trump’s company, CFO
- Adventures on bench include the stuff of tabloid headlines
Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of Trump Organization Inc., second left, appears before a judge at criminal court in New York, on July 1.
Photographer: Barry Williams/The New York Daily News/Bloomberg
The New York judge set to hear the criminal case against Donald Trump’s company and its chief financial officer has had his share of courtroom drama.
In one case Juan Merchan oversaw, a suburbanite named Anna Gristina became the subject of tabloid headlines in 2012 after she was charged with running a $2,000-an-hour escort service for wealthy and powerful men. Merchan set a $2 million bond, forcing Gristina to spend 4 months in New York City’s forbidding Rikers Island jail before an appeals court reduced her bail. In the end she pleaded guilty and got six months, including time served. A Lifetime movie about the case titled “Soccer Mom Madam” premiered June 6.