Decide upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial choose has concluded there was enough evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min learn

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

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

Attorneys for Maxwell had requested her to reject the verdict on multiple grounds, including insufficient proof.

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

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

“This authorized conclusion in no way calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Somewhat, it underscores that the jury unanimously found — thrice over — that the Defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and site visitors underage girls for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The discount of counts from 5 to three was not anticipated to have much impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell might face a sentence ranging from a number of years to many years in jail.

Attorneys for Maxwell did not return messages requesting remark. Prosecutors declined comment.

Earlier this month, the decide 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 toddler despite the fact that he had not revealed that fact in response to questions on prior intercourse abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had stated he “skimmed method too fast” via the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the improper reply to a query about intercourse abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan mentioned the juror’s failure to reveal his prior sexual abuse in the course of the jury choice course of was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.

The judge additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and could function a good and neutral juror.”

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