Ghislaine Maxwell juror grilled in court docket for not disclosing he was abused as a baby
One of the jurors who helped convict the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking mentioned Tuesday his failure to reveal earlier than the trial that he was abused as youngster was “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life.”
“I didn’t lie in order to get on this jury,” the juror, recognized throughout the listening to solely as No. 50, answered as U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan for the Southern District of New York peppered him with questions on why he didn’t reveal the abuse on a questionnaire throughout the jury choice course of.
“If I could have gone back and gone slower, I would have in a heartbeat, it wasn’t on purpose or intentional,” he mentioned.
The attorneys for Maxwell, who was within the Manhattan courtroom and has been behind bars whereas awaiting sentencing, mentioned that they’d have objected to having him serve on the jury and that the decision must be thrown out.
Nathan has given either side till March 15 to file authorized briefs on whether or not the decision must be put aside.
Questions in regards to the juror’s impartiality have been raised after Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant was convicted in December and after the juror divulged in media interviews that he had been sexually abused as a baby.
Identified within the interviews with British media by his first and center names, Scotty David, the juror mentioned he advised different members of the panel about his expertise after some voiced doubt in regards to the credibility of witnesses Jane and Carolyn.
Those are pseudonyms for 2 of the 4 girls who testified that Maxwell groomed them for intercourse with Epstein once they have been youngsters.
“When I shared that, they were able to sort of come around on, they were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse,” he mentioned within the interviews with Reuters and The Independent.
The juror, who agreed to look earlier than Nathan solely after being assured he wouldn’t be prosecuted, is below fireplace for failing to reply sure to query 48 on the jury type, which asks potential panelists in the event that they or a buddy or a member of the family had ever been sexually harassed or abused.
The juror mentioned he ought to have disclosed that he was abused as a baby by a stepbrother when he was 9 and 10. He mentioned he didn’t inform anybody till he was in highschool when he advised his mom who contacted the police, however no costs have been ever filed.
