Ghislaine Maxwell on suicide watch 'after jail staff threatened her'

Ghislaine Maxwell was placed on suicide watch after she reported that jail staff had threatened her safety: Sex trafficker could face at least 30 years behind bars for helping Jeffrey Epstein abuse young girls

  • Ghislaine Maxwell reported Brooklyn jail staff threatened her safety, prompting employees to place her on suicide watch, prosecutors said on Sunday 
  • Maxwell, 60, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday for her December conviction for helping her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein 
  • Prosecutors say she deserves between 30 and 55 years in prison
  • In court filings on Saturday, Maxwell’s lawyers said she was placed on suicide watch and asked for a delay to her sentencing
  • On Sunday, prosecutors argued no delay was needed because Maxwell had her legal documents and could get the same amount of sleep 
  • Maxwell refused to elaborate about why she feared for her safety, prosecutors said. She told psychology staff she was not suicidal 

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney said her client has been placed on suicide watch at he Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn. Pictured: Maxwell in October 

Ghislaine Maxwell reported that Brooklyn jail staff threatened her safety, prompting employees to place her on suicide watch, prosecutors said on Sunday, arguing there was no need to delay her sentencing on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell, 60, is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday for her December conviction for helping her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, the globe-trotting financier and convicted sex offender, abuse girls between 1994 and 2004. Prosecutors say she deserves between 30 and 55 years in prison.

In court filings on Saturday, Maxwell’s lawyers said she was placed on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) and asked for a delay to her sentencing. On Sunday, prosecutors argued no delay was needed because Maxwell had her legal documents and could get the same amount of sleep.

They said Maxwell was transferred after reporting threats to her safety by MDC staff to the federal Bureau of Prisons’ inspector general.

Maxwell refused to elaborate about why she feared for her safety, prosecutors said. She told psychology staff she was not suicidal.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney said her client has been placed on suicide watch at he Metropolitan Detention Center, in Brooklyn. Pictured: Maxwell with billionaire pedophile Jeffery Epstein (left) 

An undated Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Queen’s log cabin at Glen Beg, Balmoral. Maxwell faces a maximum of 55 years in jail for her part in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, but the prosecution are pushing for only 20 years

Maxwell’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Bureau of Prisons said it does not comment on any particular inmate’s confinement conditions.

Prosecutors said the jail’s warden will oversee an investigation.

‘Given the defendant’s inconsistent accounts to the (inspector general) and to psychology staff, the Chief Psychologist assesses the defendant to be at additional risk of self-harm, as it appears she may be attempting to be transferred to a single cell where she can engage in self-harm,’ prosecutors said in a court filing.

On Saturday, Bobbi Sternheim, who represents Maxwell, submitted a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathon on Saturday, stating that she had been placed on suicide watch. 

Sternheim claimed this was done ‘without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification,’ with Maxwell allegedly wearing a ‘suicided smock,’ a large piece of fabric that can’t be used to fashion a noose, and placed in solitary confinement. 

Sternheim argued Maxwell’s sentencing needed to be postponed while she remains on suicide watch, even if the lawyer claimed she ‘is not suicidal.’ 

Maxwell, 60, is due back in court on Tuesay with prosecutors requesting a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison. 

She is currently being held in the general population area of the notorious prison, where an inmate recently threatened to kill her.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘One woman was going around openly bragging that she was going to murder Ghislaine for $1 million.

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell should spend at least 30 years in prison for her role in the sexual abuse of teenage girls over a 10-year period by her onetime boyfriend, financier Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said Wednesday in written arguments

Maxwell was found guilty in December of five federal sex-trafficking charges relating to her role in recruiting and grooming teenage girls

Maxwell’s placement on suicide watch comes nearly three years after police announced Espetein, 66, killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, where the financier was awaiting trial for sex trafficking. 

Sternheim condemned the treatment of her client, who she said was not event permitted to hold a pen or paper inside solitary confinement.  

‘If Ms. Maxwell remains on suicide watch, is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel, we will be formally moving on Monday for an adjournment,’ Sternheim wrote.

Maxwell was convicted on December 29 on five criminal counts, including sex trafficking, for recruiting and grooming four girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.

Prosecutors have said Maxwell should spend at least 30 years in prison, citing her ‘utter lack of remorse.’ Maxwell wants a term shorter than 20 years.

The sentence will be imposed by U.S. Circuit Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan federal court.

Maxwell has been held in the Brooklyn jail since shortly after her July 2020 arrest.

Her lawyers objected multiple times before trial about the confinement conditions there, including last November when Sternheim likened them to Hannibal Lecter’s from the 1991 Oscar-winning film ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’

Maxwell has also requested a more lenient sentence of just four years and three months in jail, arguing that she is being scapegoated as a proxy for Epstein’s crimes.

Her legal filings claimed that helping launch the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) demonstrated she has a ‘desire to do good in the world’.

Defense lawyers said in a sentencing submission last week that she should spend no more than five years in prison.

The filing states: ‘Ms. Maxwell has always worked hard. Her many educational, occupational, and avocational accomplishments include becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), a helicopter pilot, a submersible pilot, a banker; partnering with the Cleveland Clinic to establish a telemedicine platform to enable people in remote areas to obtain quality medical treatment; helping develop the Clinton Global Initiative; and supporting a variety non-profit and charitable organizations’.

In a later section the document states that Maxwell is not an ‘heiress, villain, or vapid socialite’.  

The Victim Impact Statement from one of Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims 

But prosecutors said Maxwell played an ‘instrumental role in the horrific sexual abuse of multiple young teenage girls’ between 1994 and 2004 at some of Epstein’s palatial residences. They called her crimes ‘monstrous.’

‘As part of a disturbing agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell identified, groomed, and abused multiple victims, while she enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege. In her wake, Maxwell left her victims permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries,’ prosecutors wrote.

‘That damage can never be undone, but it can be accounted for in crafting a just sentence for Maxwell´s crimes,’ they added.

‘It appears that the defendant viewed the victims as objects who could be manipulated for her and Epstein’s own selfish purposes without any regard for their personal wellbeing, health, or safety.’

‘The Defendant’s Role in the Conspiracy Maxwell’s conduct was shockingly predatory. She was a calculating, sophisticated, and dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse’.

Prosecutors also urged the judge to reject Maxwell’s pleas for leniency on the grounds that she has suffered in extraordinary ways in jail while awaiting trial and afterward. 

Source: Read Full Article