Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was sufficient evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Related Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min learn

NEW YORK -- A choose concluded Friday that there was sufficient 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 same crime and she will solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Decide Alison J. Nathan mentioned in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts had been “readily supported” by in depth witness testimony and documentary proof 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, together with insufficient proof.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage women 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 authorized conclusion in no way calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Slightly, it underscores that the jury unanimously discovered — three 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 5 to 3 was not expected to have much impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence ranging from a number of years to a long time in prison.

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

The juror had mentioned he “skimmed approach too fast” through the questionnaire and didn't intentionally give the incorrect answer to a question about intercourse abuse.

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

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