Ghislaine Maxwell lost her bid for a new trial Friday after she requested a re-do because of a chatty juror who threw her conviction into doubt 🌊with a series of post-trial inter🦄views.
The order by Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan came weeks after she grilled the juror, who was identified by media outlets by his first and middle names, Scotty David, about his answers on a juror questionnai🌼re during the selection process last year.
David responded “no” to questions on the form that asked if he or his close family and friends had ever been the victims of sexual abuse, according his publicly filed qu🔯estionnaire.
At the hearing, David claimed he was “super distracted” while filling out the questionnaire and mistakenly marked “no” to the questions as he “flew th🍸rough”🔴 the form.
In interviews with a number of media outlets shortly after Max𓂃well was convicted, David revealed he had been the victim of childhood sexual abuse – and said he shared his experience during jury deli🍌berations.
His stories, he told Reuters, helped convince his fellow panelists to convict Maxwell of sex trafficking and other 🌠charges.
In court filings submitted afterꦬ the hearing, Maxwell’s attorneys said David’s answers reveal his bias because his childhood sexual abuse was “remarkably” similar to accounts given by victims who testified at trial.
“If there is one thing we learned from Juror 50 at the ཧHearing, it is this: he should never have been a member of this jury,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote.
“The abuse Juror 50 described at the Hearing … was remarkably similar to the abuse described by the government’s ﷽four key victim witnesses and would, by itself, have formed the basis fo🦄r a challenge for cause,” they wrote.
If David had revealed his sexual abuse during selection, he would have been sꦗtricken from the jury, her attorneys added.
Prosecuto♋rs, meanwhile, argued the juror made an “honest mistake” – and said even if David had revealed 🌳his past sexual abuse on the questionnaire, he would have been allowed on the jury, they wrote.
“Juror 50’s sworn responses made clear that he was a fair and impartia🌼l juror who did not harbor any bias and who would not have been excused for cause,” prosecutors ꧑from the Southern District of New York wrote.
At trial, prosecut🔥ors painted Maxwell a🀅s a serial “predator” who preyed on young, vulnerable girls and lured them into her orbit for multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.
Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts in December, including sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, after a monthlon🌳g trial where four of her accusers testified.
