Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was enough proof to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min learn

NEW YORK -- A judge concluded Friday that there was enough proof to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls 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 only be sentenced for one.

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

Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the verdict on multiple grounds, together with inadequate 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 five counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts were duplicates of the third.

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

The reduction of counts from 5 to a few was not expected to have a lot effect on the sentencing, when Maxwell may face a sentence ranging from a number of years to a long time in jail.

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

Earlier this month, the decide 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 though he had not revealed that reality in response to questions on prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had said he “skimmed manner too quick” through the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the incorrect reply to a query about sex abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan mentioned the juror’s failure to reveal his prior sexual abuse in the course of the jury choice course of was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.

The choose additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and could serve as a fair 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.