Judge upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial judge has concluded there was sufficient evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Related 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 sex 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 can solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan mentioned in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts were “readily supported” by intensive witness testimony and documentary proof at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the verdict on a number of grounds, together with insufficient proof.

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

Nathan stated 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 had been duplicates of the third.

“This authorized conclusion on no account calls into question the factual findings made by the jury. Quite, it underscores that the jury unanimously found — 3 times over — that the Defendant is responsible of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and visitors underage women for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The reduction of counts from five to a few was not expected to have much effect on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence ranging from several years to a long time in jail.

Attorneys for Maxwell didn't return messages requesting remark. Prosecutors declined remark.

Earlier this month, the decide 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 baby although he had not revealed that reality in response to questions about prior intercourse abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had stated he “skimmed means too quick” by the questionnaire and didn't deliberately give the unsuitable answer to a question about intercourse abuse.

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

The choose additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias toward the defendant and could serve as 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 sex trafficking trial.