Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial judge 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 judge concluded Friday that there was sufficient evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking women for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, however she also gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the same crime and she can only be sentenced for one.

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

Legal professionals for Maxwell had asked her to reject the decision on a number of grounds, including insufficient proof.

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

Nathan stated 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 in no way calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Relatively, it underscores that the jury unanimously discovered — three times over — that the Defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and traffic underage women for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The reduction of counts from five to a few was not anticipated to have much effect on the sentencing, when Maxwell might face a sentence starting from several years to decades in jail.

Attorneys 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 regardless that he had not revealed that truth in response to questions on prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had mentioned he “skimmed manner too quick” by way of the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the unsuitable answer to a question about sex abuse.

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

The choose additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias toward 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 intercourse trafficking trial.