By Jonathan Stempel
NEWYORK – Ghislaine Maxwell desires the federal decide who oversaw her latest intercourse trafficking trial to evaluate a “bombshell revelation” from one of many jurors earlier than deciding whether or not to overturn the British socialite’s conviction and grant a brand new trial.
The request on Friday from Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim got here forward of the deliberate airing on Paramount+ of “Ghislaine: Associate in Crime,” a collection analyzing Maxwell and her relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted on Dec. 29 on intercourse trafficking and 4 different counts for serving to Epstein sexually abuse underage women.
However the verdict turned clouded when the juror, a person often called Juror 50, informed media that he had revealed throughout jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a toddler, after failing to reveal it in a pretrial screening questionnaire.
Maxwell’s attorneys mentioned Juror 50 would have been excluded from the jury “for trigger,” reflecting his potential bias, had he crammed out the questionnaire honestly.
Juror 50 mentioned at a March 8 listening to that he rushed via the questionnaire and referred to as his omission “one of many greatest errors I’ve ever made in my life,” however mentioned he didn't mislead get on Maxwell’s jury.
The trailer for the Paramount+ collection mentioned Juror 50’s “bombshell revelation” got here in his “solely in-depth interview” regarding Maxwell’s case.
“Some jurors did have critical credibility points with a few of these victims,” Juror 50 mentioned within the trailer. “Simply because some recollections are fuzzy doesn’t imply that they’re not telling the reality.”
The juror’s lawyer, Todd Spodek, mentioned the interview happened on Jan. 4, the identical day his consumer spoke to different media.
“Juror 50 doesn't think about himself a sufferer,” Spodek wrote in an e-mail. “His place then, and now, is that that is nothing greater than an inadvertent, trustworthy mistake.”
Paramount didn't instantly reply to requests for remark. The community is a unit of Paramount International, which till not too long ago was often called ViacomCBS.
In a letter to Circuit Choose Alison Nathan, who oversaw Maxwell’s trial, Sternheim mentioned Paramount+ has delayed airing “Ghislaine: Associate in Crime” till the decide decides whether or not a brand new trial is required.
Nathan was elevated this week to the federal appeals court docket in Manhattan however retains jurisdiction over Maxwell’s case.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019 at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell whereas awaiting trial on sex-trafficking fees.
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