Juror Who Risked Ghislaine Maxwell Conviction Refuses To Answer Judge's Questions
Topics: no-article-matching, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Shola Lee
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: no-article-matching, Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, US News
Juror 50, who threw Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial into doubt, will not answer the judge's questions, according to his lawyer.
Prior to Maxwell's trial, the juror in question failed to reveal he had been sexually abused as a child.
He went on to share this information with his fellow jurors, which has led to Maxwell's lawyers demanding a new trial.
Maxwell was convicted on December 29 last year of five of the six counts against her, having been found not guilty of just one charge; enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
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Now, the juror is invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination and will not be answering the judge's questions at a hearing on March 8, as per The New York Times.
The juror's lawyer, Todd Spodek told judge Alison J. Nathan that his client would 'invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination at the hearing'.
Juror 50 revealed in an interview with the Daily Mail that he recounted his personal experience of being sexually abused as a child, adding in a later interview with Reuters that in sharing his story, he felt that his fellow jurors 'were able to come around on the memory aspect of the sexual abuse'.
However, the juror's experience of sexual abuse was something that was required to be disclosed prior to the trial in a juror questionnaire.
Juror 50 had checked 'no' when responding to a question asking if he had ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse or sexual assault, leading Maxwell's lawyers to seek a new trial, arguing the juror 'did not truthfully respond to perhaps the most important question put to potential jurors'.
However, the juror said he 'flew through' the questionnaire, and didn't recall being asked about his experience of sexual abuse, as per Sky News.
In an interview with the Independent following Maxwell's conviction, the juror said the guilty verdict was for 'all the victims' and noted that regardless of 'status' people could still be held accountable for their actions. 'For those who testified, for those who came forward, and for those who haven't come forward. I'm glad Maxwell has been held accountable'.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivor’s Trust for free on 08088 010 818, or through their website thesurvivorstrust.org