Decide upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

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

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min read

NEW YORK -- A judge concluded Friday that there was enough proof to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking ladies for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she additionally gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the identical crime and she will be able to solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan mentioned in her written ruling that the jury’s guilty verdicts were “readily supported” by intensive witness testimony and documentary proof 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, including inadequate evidence.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage ladies 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 were duplicates of the third.

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

The reduction of counts from five to 3 was not expected to have a lot effect on the sentencing, when Maxwell may face a sentence ranging from several years to many years in jail.

Attorneys for Maxwell did not return messages requesting remark. 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 baby regardless that he had not revealed that fact in response to questions on prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had said he “skimmed approach too quick” by way of the questionnaire and did not deliberately give the flawed reply to a question about intercourse abuse.

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

The judge 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 own life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a intercourse trafficking trial.