Ghislaine Maxwell judge grills embattled juror under oath
The Ghislaine Maxwell juror who threw her conviction into chaos testified Tuesday that answering a pre-trial juror questionnaire incorrectly was one of the “biggest mistakes” of his life.
The juror, testifying anonymously as “Juror. No. 50” but identified in previous news stories as Scotty David, was grilled by Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan about discrepancies in statements he made to a number of media outlets versus his answers on the questionnaire.
“I was super distracted,” David told Nathan referring to Nov. 4 — the day he answered “no” to questions that had asked whether he had been accused of, or was the victim of sexual abuse or harassment.
David had divulged in a series of interviews after Maxwell’s sex-trafficking conviction that he had been the victim of sexual abuse as a child — and said he used his past as a way to sway other jurors to convict the British socialite.
Testifying Tuesday under an immunity agreement with prosecutors, David claimed he “flew through” the questionnaire and missed the question about personal experiences with sexual abuse becuase he 💖was distracted by a recent romantic breakup.
“I was sat right in front of the table, literally within four feet of that table where everybody was dropping off their questionnaires. People were asking questions, there was papers being ripped off the questionnaire packets, and there’s a lot of talking going on, and it’s super distracting,” he said.
He added that he thought the questio🔯n about sexual abuse referred to friends and family – and missed that it specifically asked if the potential jurors had been victims of sexual abuse themselves.
“I skimmed way too fast … I just wanted to get done with this,” he said, adding that he was “thinking about the breakup that just happened a few weeks prior.”
“I just missed it. This was o🐼ne of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” said David, who was stoic on the stand.
The juror told Nathan that he had been sexually abused by his step brother and one of his friend😼s on multiple occassions when he was nine and 10 years old.ಌ
He told his mother🔥 about the abuse years later, and she reported it to local police, he said, but no charges were ever filed.
He said he never thought he would be chosen to sit on the panel because of the sheer volume of people who were called for jury selection but said he thought the case would be interesting after learni🐬ng who was on trial.
“If you’re going to serve jury du𓄧ty, it might as well be something that’s interesting,” he said, adding, “I did not set out to get on this jury.”
Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, David said in a court filing that he intended to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Prosecutors then gave him immunity from prosecution, paving the way for his testimony.
After the hour-long hearing, Nathan ord꧂ered Maxwell’s attorneys and prosecutors to submit briefs about his testimony.
The defense had already filed a motion for a new trial, in part, over David’s revelations — and Nathan said she’ll rule on that request after she reviews the briefs.
Maxwell, wearing a two-piece blue jail jumpsuit, attended t🦩he h༺earing and sat at a table with her attorneys as Nathan questioned the juror.
Her sister, who a꧒tte🐠nded most days of her trial, was spotted walking into the courthouse Tuesday.
Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts in December, including sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, a💫fter a month lo꧃ng trial where four of her accusers testified.
At trial, prosecutors painted Maxwell as a serial “predator” who preyed on young, vulnerable girls a♈nd lured them into her orbit for multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.
If her conviction stands, she faces a maximum of 65 years in prison.
