Judge 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 Associated Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min learn

NEW YORK -- A choose concluded Friday that there was sufficient evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, however she additionally gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the same crime and she will be able to solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan stated in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts were “readily supported” by extensive 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 multiple grounds, together with insufficient evidence.

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

Nathan said that she'll only 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 legal conclusion by no means calls into question 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 site visitors underage ladies for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The reduction of counts from five to a few was not anticipated to have a lot impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence starting from several years to decades in prison.

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

Earlier this month, the choose refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to different jurors throughout jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a child even though 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 method too quick” by way of the questionnaire and didn't deliberately give the unsuitable reply to a query about sex abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan mentioned the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse throughout the jury selection process was highly unlucky, however not deliberate.

The decide also concluded the juror “harbored no bias toward the defendant and will function a good and impartial 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.