Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

A trial choose has concluded there was enough 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 sufficient proof to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but 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 mentioned in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts had been “readily supported” by extensive witness testimony and documentary proof at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Attorneys for Maxwell had asked her to reject the decision on a number of grounds, including 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 had been duplicates of the third.

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

The reduction of counts from five to three 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 didn't return messages requesting remark. Prosecutors declined remark.

Earlier this month, the decide refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to other jurors throughout jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a child even though he had not revealed that fact in response to questions about prior intercourse abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had stated he “skimmed method too fast” by way of the questionnaire and didn't intentionally give the mistaken answer to a question about sex abuse.

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

The decide also concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and will function a fair and neutral 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.