Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was enough proof 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 evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she additionally gave Maxwell a authorized victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the identical crime and she will only be sentenced for one.

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

Legal professionals for Maxwell had requested her to reject the decision on a number of grounds, together with insufficient evidence.

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

“This authorized conclusion under no circumstances calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Moderately, it underscores that the jury unanimously found — three 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 five to three was not anticipated to have much impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell may face a sentence starting from several years to decades in prison.

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

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 toddler although he had not revealed that truth in response to questions about prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had stated he “skimmed approach too quick” by way of the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the fallacious answer to a query about intercourse abuse.

In refusing to toss the decision, Nathan stated the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse throughout the jury choice process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.

The decide also concluded the juror “harbored no bias toward the defendant and will serve as a fair 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.