NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. decide refused to throw out Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction Friday, regardless of a juror’s failure to disclose earlier than the trial started that he’d been a sufferer of childhood sexual abuse.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in December of serving to the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse several teenage girls.
U.S. Choose Alison J. Nathan declined to order a brand new trial weeks after questioning the juror beneath oath in a New York courtroom about why he did not disclose his private historical past as an abuse survivor on a questionnaire in the course of the jury choice course of.
The juror had mentioned he “skimmed manner too quick” via the questionnaire and didn’t deliberately give the improper reply to a query about intercourse abuse.
“I didn’t lie so as to get on this jury,” he mentioned.
In an opinion sure to set off the next court docket enchantment, Nathan mentioned the juror’s failure to reveal his prior sexual abuse in the course of the jury choice course of was extremely unlucky, however not deliberate.
The decide additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and will function a good and neutral juror.”
Had the juror answered the questions appropriately, Maxwell’s attorneys had mentioned they probably may have objected to the person’s presence on the jury on the grounds that he may not be truthful to an individual accused of an identical crime.
The U.S. lawyer’s workplace declined remark Friday. Messages had been left with Maxwell’s attorneys.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted of intercourse trafficking and different expenses after a monthlong trial that featured testimony from 4 girls who mentioned she performed a task in setting them up for abuse by Epstein.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019 as he awaited trial at a federal jail in New York on associated intercourse trafficking expenses.
Maxwell says she’s harmless.
After the trial’s conclusion, the juror, recognized in court docket papers solely as Juror No. 50, gave interviews with a number of media retailers describing deliberations, and disclosing that he’d been abused as a toddler. He mentioned he persuaded some fellow jurors {that a} sufferer’s imperfect reminiscence of abuse doesn’t imply it didn’t occur.
Potential jurors within the case had been had been required to fill out a 50-page questionnaire together with a query that requested: “Have you ever or a pal or member of the family ever been the sufferer of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault?”
The juror checked “No.”
The juror mentioned in one of many interviews that he didn’t keep in mind being requested that query, which was No. 48 on the shape.
Protection attorneys for Maxwell requested the decide to right away order a brand new trial, however she mentioned she couldn’t accomplish that with out questioning the juror.
After Nathan questioned the juror in early March, attorneys on either side submitted written arguments. Prosecutors mentioned the juror made an “trustworthy mistake” and that it was “crystal clear” that Maxwell obtained a good trial.
Maxwell’s attorneys disagreed.
“Excusing Juror 50’s false solutions as a result of he believes his hid historical past of sexual abuse didn’t have an effect on his skill to function a good and neutral juror doesn’t fulfill the looks of justice,” they argued. “Solely a brand new trial would.”
However Nathan rejected that reasoning, writing that the juror’s claims that he remained neutral towards Maxwell rang true.
When questioned about it, he answered “frankly and actually, even when the solutions he gave had been the reason for private embarrassment and remorse,” she mentioned. “His tone, demeanor and responsiveness gave no indication of false testimony.”
