Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was enough evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Related Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min learn

NEW YORK -- A judge concluded Friday that there was enough evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking women for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she also gave Maxwell a authorized victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the identical crime and she will solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Choose Alison J. Nathan mentioned in her written ruling that the jury’s guilty verdicts have been “readily supported” by in depth witness testimony and documentary evidence at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the verdict on a number of grounds, including inadequate evidence.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage women for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004.

Nathan said that she'll only sentence Maxwell in late June on three of the 5 counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts had been duplicates of the third.

“This legal conclusion by no means calls into question the factual findings made by the jury. Quite, it underscores that the jury unanimously discovered — three times over — that the Defendant is responsible of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and visitors underage girls for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The discount of counts from 5 to 3 was not expected to have much impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence starting from several years to many years in jail.

Legal professionals for Maxwell did not return messages requesting comment. Prosecutors declined comment.

Earlier this month, the judge refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to different jurors during jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a baby even though he had not revealed that truth in response to questions on prior intercourse abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had said he “skimmed manner too quick” by way of the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the incorrect reply to a query about intercourse abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan said the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse through the jury selection course of was highly unlucky, however not deliberate.

The decide additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and will serve as a good and neutral juror.”

Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated. Epstein was 66 when he took his personal life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.