Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was sufficient proof 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 sufficient proof to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking ladies for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, however 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 Judge Alison J. Nathan said in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts have been “readily supported” by in depth witness testimony and documentary evidence at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Legal professionals for Maxwell had requested her to reject the verdict on a number of grounds, together with inadequate proof.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage girls 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 five counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts have been duplicates of the third.

“This authorized conclusion on no account calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Fairly, it underscores that the jury unanimously found — 3 times over — that the Defendant is responsible of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and traffic underage women 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 may face a sentence starting from a number of years to a long time in prison.

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

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

The juror had mentioned he “skimmed means too fast” via the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the wrong reply to a query about sex abuse.

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

The decide additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and could function a fair 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 intercourse trafficking trial.