(New York) The judge of the New York court, where the former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been appearing for a month for a month for sex trafficking, urged the jury on Tuesday to agree on a verdict, at the risk of the COVID epidemic- 19 still postpones the outcome of the trial.
Worried about an “astronomical peak” in cases of Omicron variant contaminations in recent days in New York, Judge Alison Nathan threatened the 12 jurors to bring them back Thursday and Friday, despite the end of the holiday season. year, if they did not end their interminable deliberations on Wednesday.
After another full day behind closed doors, the jury was unable to unanimously say whether Mr.me Maxwell had to be found guilty of sex crimes or declared innocent. According to the judge, the jurors reported “progress” in their discussions started a week ago and will return Wednesday at 9 am.
Tuesday morning, Judge Nathan warned of an “increasing risk” that trial participants contract the Omicron virus from COVID-19 and be forced into quarantine.
This would further delay the end of the trial.
Ghislaine Maxwell has been appearing in Manhattan Federal Court since November 29 and the hearing ended on December 20. Since then, and after a break for Christmas, the six women and six men of the popular jury have been deliberating for several hours a day in secret, but without reaching an agreement.
PHOTO RICK BAJORNAS, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ghislaine Maxwell in 2013
They must decide the guilt or innocence of the former companion of influential American financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex crimes, but who committed suicide in prison in the summer of 2019 before his trial.
Mme Maxwell, who turned 60 on Christmas Day, has been in prison in New York since his arrest in the summer of 2020, prosecuted among other things for providing Mr. Epstein between the years 1994 and 2004 with underage sexually exploited girls.
Holding a triple British, French and American nationality, Ghislaine Maxwell risks decades in prison if she is found guilty of the six crimes attributed to her, all in connection with sexual violence committed by Jeffrey Epstein on four victims, minors at the material time, and who testified during the trial.
The daughter of British press magnate Robert Maxwell (died 1991) pleads not guilty.
Besides Jeffrey Epstein, other celebrity shadows hover over this trial: British Prince Andrew, a relative of Mr. Epstein, has been the subject since August of a separate complaint for “sexual assault” filed by an American, Virginia Giuffre .
The names of former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump have also been mentioned because of their presence at parties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York or Florida in the 1990s, with supporting photos.
Finally, on the French side, the former model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, friend of Epstein, was indicted and imprisoned in Paris in December 2020 for rape and sexual assault.