Judge orders explanation of Maxwell cell treatment

A JUDGE has ordered the US government to explain why guards repeatedly flash light into Ghislaine Maxwell’s cell overnight, an action her lawyers say may have led to a bruise over one eye as she awaits trial in an alleged sex-trafficking conspiracy with ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

US District Judge Alison J. Nathan issued the order after a lawyer for Maxwell complained that guards threatened to punish her client after

Maxwell was unable to explain a bruise above one eye that was noticed on Wednesday when she saw her reflection in a nail clipper.

The lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, said the 59-year-old Maxwell may have got the bruise as she tries to shield her eyes from the light that awakens her every 15 minutes as guards make sure she is breathing.

“While Ms Maxwell is unaware of the cause of the bruise, as reported to medical and psych staff, she has grown increasingly reluctant to report information to the guards for fear of retaliation, discipline, and punitive chores,” Ms Sternheim wrote.

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges alleging she recruited teenage girls for ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004.

Epstein, a financier, killed himself in a federal Manhattan jail in August 2019 as he awaited a sex-trafficking trial.

A lawyer for Maxwell told a threejudge panel for the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week that Maxwell is being treated as if she is a suicide risk even though she is not one.

Two judges expressed concern that light is flashed in Maxwell’s cell at night, interrupting her sleep.