Ghislaine Maxwell juror to be questioned under oath by judge
NEW YORK (AP) — A Ghislaine Maxwell trial juror who indicated during jury selection that he’d never been a sexual abuse victim will be questioned by the trial judge in court, after demands for a new trial by defense attorneys sprouted from his public claims that he’d influenced fellow jurors by revealing he was a child sex assault victim.
U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan said in a written order Thursday she’ll question the juror March 8 at a public court hearing.
She also said she rejected requests by Maxwell’s attorneys that she immediately order a new trial and that she question other jurors, after a second one reportedly revealed during deliberations having suffered a childhood sexual attack.
A copy of the first juror’s questionnaire answers, filed publicly Thursday, showed a man identified in court papers only as “Juror No. 50” checked the “No” box to a question asking if he or a friend or family member had ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse or sexual assault. The question said it “includes actual or attempted sexual assault or other unwanted sexual advance, including by a stranger, acquaintance, supervisor, teacher, or family member.”
The juror’s questionnaire was attached as an exhibit to the newly unsealed Jan. 19 request for a new trial by Maxwell’s lawyers. They noted that all other jurors also said they were not victims of sexual abuse, assault or harassment.
“Truthful answers from Juror No. 50 would have led the Court and the parties to probe much more deeply into his biases and prejudices, both known and unknown. Had that happened, the record shows that he would have been removed as a potential juror,” the lawyers wrote.
Maxwell’s lawyers said the juror answered other questions falsely, including one asking whether he’d ever been a crime victim.
In a Feb. 2 submission unsealed Thursday, prosecutors said there was substantial reason to believe that any inaccuracy by the juror was “an honest mistake, not a deliberate falsehood.”
Maxwell, 60, remains incarcerated after she was convicted of sex trafficking, among other charges, during a December trial in which she was portrayed as the chief recruiter of teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. Prosecutors said she also sometimes joined in the abuse.
https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-arts-and-entertainment-sexual-abuse-alison-j-nathan-nyc-state-wire-e02e3010300d944c8bbe308e6f7373b2